Good afternoon, viewers. Today is my weekday off from classes and I exercised my right to sleep in. On Tuesday and Thursdays, I usually wake up very early (around 4:00 am) as my first class is at 7:00am. I then teach a few late afternoon courses those days and then an evening course on Thursday. Needless to say, I’m always exhausted by the time I get to the Thursday night class and my students see it.
There are days I’m tempted to skip out on classes. I never do, though. Unless I’m sick and contagious (or simply not feeling well), I show up to work whether I feel like it or not. I can get over the mood and do my job.
Then there are the bad classes. I have one of those from time to time, and then a student from hell. I had one of the latter yesterday morning. I’m not going to give details (sorry!), though I don’t think this one is a permanent problem. It was enough to throw the rest of my day off and I wanted to call in sick to the other campus. However, I didn’t do that.
I gave my critical thinking class their new syllabus. They seem like a cool group, but I have this argumentative chick (yes, I’m using this word instead of girl or young woman) who revels in her mediocrity and seems content to drag the rest of the class down with her. She’s also one of those types who tries to manipulate the professor, largely through being an aggressive loudmouth. Why do I have a feeling she’s in for a rude awakening when she gets her final grade?
I hit it off with another student in the class after I started talking about Star Trek and minorities being represented on that show. Interestingly, his first and last names are those of Star Trek characters (though I don’t think his parents intended that). I can’t reveal it here.
Then I had to go on with my “math teaching.” This is my special term for teaching grammar. I went over run-on sentences in my last two classes of the day and then went over writing assignments. In the English Skills class, I always refer my students to the English Writing Center to see a tutor. Since this is an ongoing thing, they keep pressuring me to give them extra credit for taking the time to have a tutor help them outside of class. I keep telling them this will favorably factor in their grade, but it doesn’t keep them from pushing for those extra points.
By the time I went home, I was completely exhausted. I caught the tail end of Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style and then went to sleep shortly after. Special elixirs (i.e. a couple of glasses of wine) always help.
I didn’t think this would be such a long-ass post. Here’s a funny, but cheesy skit I found on YouTube from some Aussie guy. Talk about taking self-love to an extreme.
Happy Friday!
Tags: community college, hughsnews, sleep, star trek, students, YouTube
