A Week in the Life: Tuesday

5:40 am: Alarm goes off. [Hubby has to be at work by 6:45, and it's a half-hour drive.] After a 16-hour day yesterday, woke up groggy. Two cups of coffee only upset my stomach.

7:30 am: Go outside to get this shot: 

7:45 am: Kids and I leave for school. Day continues as yesterday (most mornings run the same way, so I'm not going to belabor it).

8:30 am: Arrive on campus after dropping both kids off at their respective schools. Spend 20 minutes considering what approach to take for my ENG 102 class because I am giving back their graded papers, and I feel like I need to spend some time exploring what I think went wrong for those who ended up in the C-range because they didn't follow directions as well as I would have liked.


9:00-10:15 am: ENG 102. Spend 45 minutes going over the last paper assignment, and talking (again) about the importance of being aware of the reader when writing. Go over (again) the assignment sheet for the current essay (due Thursday). Talk about the necessity of a well-crafted introduction to help situate the reader and make clear what the paper will cover. Talk (again) about drafting and revision and the need to give themselves enough time to revise. End class 20 minutes early to give students a chance to come and show me their introductions/thesis statements and get some advice. End up talking to 10 out of the 20 in attendance (out of 23 registered) and move the "party" to my office because someone else's class is in the room.


10:15-10:30 am: More one-on-one conferences. 


10:30-11:10 am: Grading (trying to finish the last few ENG 102 papers from the afternoon class).


11:15-11:30 am: Meet with ENG 102 student to help her with her paper. 


11:30-11:55 am: Catch up on emails that have been flying furiously all morning re: furloughs and furlough resolutions coming out of the various campuses. Morale is low.


12:05-12:50 pm: Meet with ENG 102 student who is unhappy with grade on last paper and spends time flogging the point; finally acknowledges that she can see why I'd assigned the grade. Move on to discussing current paper, and balance of summary and analysis. From there, discuss classes she needs to take next semester (I'm also her advisor, and registration starts this week). 


12:50-1:00 pm: No time for lunch, and haven't had breakfast (ran out of cereal yesterday, didn't have energy to go to the grocery store on my way home at 7:30 last night).


1:00-2:15 pm: ENG 102 runs pretty much the same as the morning class, except that at the end, only 5 students (out of 19 present--23 registered) stick around to talk to me about their papers.


2:30 pm: Culver's again (no food in the fridge in the faculty lounge, and I didn't have time to pack a sandwich other than Thing One's this morning). Still have about 6 ENG 101 papers left to grade, but I am cached at this point. Eat my "lunch" and watch "Castle" on my computer. Also read more furlough emails. Some people think we should be happy we have jobs (I am), but I'm not going to sit back and accept the absurdity of the furlough situation (that we have to take furlough days on non-instructional days), or accept the Republican governor-elect's campaign promise to make me fund more of my own benefits out of my already lower-that-average salary. What do I do on non-instructional days? Stay tuned to find out! (Friday)


3:30 pm: Abruptly remember that I'm team-teaching tomorrow on Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs with my friend the American History professor. Find the PowerPoint from the last time we did this and send it over, hoping she'll see it before I have to leave at 4:00 to pick the kids up at the daycare center. She does, and we agree that I'll add a few things to the slides, clean them up, and get them ready to roll for our 9am combined class.


3:55 pm: Email myself the presentation so that I can work on it at home.


4:05 pm-5:00pm: Leave campus to pick up the kids.  Collect them from the daycare center (which thankfully has an elementary school pick-up service, otherwise I'd have to leave campus at 2:45 to pick Thing One up at three--which is what I had to do all last year). Get gas. Drive home. 


5:00 pm-5:45 pm: Dinner is frozen pizza because the sink is still full of dirty dishes. Ugh. Thankfully I'm still full from my late lunch so the kids get milk and pizza and fruit while I do the dishes. Second shift has begun. I also open the PowerPoint and start tweaking it.


5:45-6:00 pm: Give Thing Two his bath, as he has smeared pizza sauce all over his face and hair. It's adorable and I get 15 minutes to play.


6:00-6:45 pm: Work on Douglass/Jacobs PP. Not done, but I'm running out of gas. Also realize I haven't updated this blog since 10:30.


6:45-7:05 pm: Update blog. Wish I could be more eloquent (after all, I'm an English professor, right?). Just too damned tired. Thing One and Hubby are watching Looney Tunes. 


And cue my exit from the work day.