Just One More Week

I keep reminding myself of this over and over again. Just one more week left of the quarter. Surely I can make it just one more week.

This is my first quarter teaching since Steven was just a few months old, and I'm exhausted. I've been tutoring in the Writing Center this whole time, but now I'm back to doing both. I'm teaching a day class, so I drive up to school two days for that. I stay late on the one day to tutor for a couple hours, and then I go back up on Saturdays to tutor for another five hours. Being gone three days a week has been hard. I'm used to working on Saturdays, but that wasn't too bad because Mark was home with the kids, and I didn't have to worry about them at all. It doesn't help that it's at 45-60 minute commute one way, depending on traffic :(

I only have one more Saturday, one more Monday, and one more Wednesday. It's just one more week, but it feels like so much more! My students are giving presentations both days next week, so it'll be super easy. I'll just grade them as I go, and the presentations are instead of a final exam. (Yay!)

However, I just collected research papers today. Six to eight pages per paper times however many students actually turned theirs in. I am not looking forward to grading those. So much is riding on these papers because they are a huge percent of their grade. I hate to see students that who have worked hard fail (or not pass with at least a C) the class. The ones that only come on partially cloudy days or every fourth class are a different story.

I had a student reappear today after weeks of missing class. He didn't have a paper, nor has he ever turned in a paper. Part way through class, he realized how pointless it was to be there (and I think he had a doctor's appointment or something) and left. I just don't get it.

Just one more week and then I get a whole month off. I can't wait!