Back to School: Week 5

With five weeks of being back on campus under our belt, we are now 30% done with fall semester.  We are also being subjected to a tsunami of student papers: the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I always feel a bit like the poor girl in the fairy tale who was told to spin gold out of straw, which is something like making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.  But then a few students actually do the assignment they have been asked to do and write a paper that is interesting and free enough of surface errors to make it swift reading.  This almost makes up for having to spend so much time in front of the computer rather than outside walking around the lake or biking to the bakery or tossing a ball over the hill in the park for Gracie to retrieve.  Almost.

Gracie models her Target raincoat

Tuesday, our first day of the week on campus, Gracie and I awoke to rain.  Luckily, I was prepared with an umbrella for me and a raincoat for Gracie.  She was not too keen on wearing the coat's hood but did not object to the coat itself--purchased at Target for a reasonable sum.  We did not check to see where the raincoat was made and hope it was not made on some island prison by children chained to little sewing machines.  It really did keep her dryer than she would othewise have been, especially underneath.  Tuesday is our easy day. 

Wednesday, usually our day to exercise and grade student work, was Student Success Day.  In honor of student success which both Gracie and I believe in strongly, we hosted a one hour, noontime Webinar, broadcast live from our broadcast studio in the sunroom of our lovely St. Louis Park home.  With extra credit promised for attendance at this Webinar (or any other Student Success Day Presentation up to three), we had twenty students in attendance.  This is less than used to attend my Raising Readers presentation but more than I would have been able to meet with had I spent two hours of the day driving to and fro from the campus.  Anyway, we toured the library and saw how to sign up to use and then use Smarthinking.

Gracie and my photo for the
English department rouge's gallery
of instructors

Thursday, Gracie and I went in early to open the writing center.  I get a bit wound up gathering all the things we need to take with us for the day.  Gracie stays calm though and this calms me down.  She now knows the writing center and is very well behaved while there.  This Thursday, we had papers to return to the students in the 7:45 a.m. class that follows our writing center stint.  I had the papers in a box on wheels.  This is pretty awkward to drag around and doing so managed to eat up the time between writing center and class that we have been using for a quick trip outside for Gracie to relieve herself.  A true trooper, Gracie did not complain and, instead, waited like a lady until class was over and I had returned the box to the office for her visit to the great outdoors.

Excellent portrait of Gracie by son Nate

Friday is our hardest day.  Since we don't go to the campus as early, I have been mistakenly telling myself that we can do a lot of things before we leave.  Unfortunately, this is not true.  We have been leaving a little late, and I have had to almost speed to get to the campus in time to get us to the writing center for our second hour of the week spent there.  On Friday, Gracie and I sit at the instructor's table.  I sit there, and Gracie sits under the table on her rug pressed up against the glass wall sometimes dozing and sometimes staring at the students working in the booths in the hallway outside the writing center.  Students usually come to us for help, but sometimes make us come to them.  When this happens, Gracie goes to the student's computer or the student's table with me.  This Friday, the writing center was surprisingly busy.  Perhaps students were inspired by Student Success Day to make use of the writing center with renewed vigor.  Anyway, Gracie and I were kept hopping.  Then we had a short break before our three hour afternoon class (which is like eating an entire pie right before going to bed).  Thursday on our way home, we had stopped off for more dog food and got Gracie a bone stuffed with cheese and bacon (or something meant to simulate there things)for her to chew on during this long class.  Happily, it kept her busy while I worked on keeping the students busy by pretending to have more energy and enthusiasm for coordinating sentences than I actually felt.  Viva the conjunctive adverb.  And then our week was over...Not!  Those darn papers followed us home, I'm afraid!  Argh!!

Gracie and Laurie thought to escape, but the students' papers followed them home.



Back to School: Week 4

Gracie shows off her Elvis comb over;
thinking ahead for Halloween!

Gracie loves to know that she knows what is happening next and where she is going and what she is supposed to do while there.  Monday, we went to Century for a department meeting and going in on Monday, later in the day, and then going to a department meeting was unfamiliar.  Instead of being up in front of the room on my feet talking away while Gracie dozed, I was in a desk  like a student.  I hadn't thought to bring her bath mat, and the tile floor was cold.  She sat next to the desk after I asked her to settle but then couldn't get comfortable.  On top of that, the person from counseling who was speaking to the department kept rushing forward and then backing up again as he spoke, a rhetorical style that had Gracie on edge.  I finally decided to invite her onto my lap.  She jumped up and stayed there quietly through the very long meeting which mostly addressed full-time faculty concerns; though, we did learn that the current chair was moving up to become the temporary dean so that someone would need to fill in the department chair spot.  This, of course, affects scheduling of part-timers for fall and perhaps for summer should the full-timers not take all those classes as they did not last summer and the summer before that.  We, of course, have no control of this, but still, it was interesting.  After the meeting, I was going to do some work in my office since my office mate did not show up for the meeting; however, Gracie had other ideas, so we came home.  She is so wise!!

Tuesday was like the previous Tuesdays, and Gracie was great.  Ditto for Thursday.  Friday, our long day, found me about 10% off my game.  This confirmed for me that driving the hour to White Bear Lake and the hour back four times a week was one time too many.  Eight hours of driving cuts seriously into my ability to assess student work, meet with students in Webinars, respond to their postings and email questions.  Considering MY problems, Gracie was once again great, especially in the Writing Center and during my three hour late afternoon class.

Highlights of the week include walking on the Woodduck Trail and spotting a horn toad and a very large painted turtle; playing ball on the soccer field; running up and down the hill in the park behind our house; and a short shopping trip to the co-op for raddish sprouts.  We also picked a few peppers, attempting to beat the hard frost.

We are definitely ready for Week 5!

Back to School: Week 3

We started Week 3 of the incredibly long 16 week semester with a plan.  Tuesday at school--just a 1+ hour class and some time in the office--went smoothly.  The class--composition 1--met in the same classroom as usual and Gracie settled on her bathmat just where we have been putting her bathmat very nicely indeed.  All but two students made it to class.  We spent part of class talking about State Fair food. About half the class always goes the MN State Fair we learned via a show of hands.  I explained how relived I was not to have to go anymore and to now, after a number of years, not feel guilty about that.  I was brought up to consider the fair an end of summer ritual and thought that smelling hot farm animals, dodging agressive bees, eating grease soaked food, and being spun on potentially dangerous rides was how one would finally accept that school was starting and might even be glad that it was.

Wednesday I had to give my ENGL 90 students feedback on the work they had submitted by Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. in the class's course delivery site.  Somewhat counterintuitively, this class meets less often and  less frequently than the more advanced (composition-wise) class.  Trying to get them to a place where they not only pass the class but pass ready for the next class in the sequence is an enormous challenge.  I didn't have much time to play with Gracie as a result, so we went to the park a couple of times to run up and down the hill.  With the neighborhood kids thankfully in school, the park is relatively free of activity late in the morning and early in the afternoon.  This worked.  I got my work done, and Gracie was happy to hang out while I did after having a chance to run and roll in the grass for a bit.

Thursday, we opened the writing center.  Gracie stayed with me while I turned on all the computers and unlocked the various doors.  She stayed behind the desk until it was time to leave.  This week we couldn't take a quick break outside because the class was meeting in the open computer lab to start in on peer reivew of their first essay.  This location was problematic I learned once we were actually in there because there was really not enough space without tons of cords for Gracie to get comfortable.  Finally, I clipped her leash to my belt (a metal Target special) and let her walk around with me.  We finished the day at school in my office where Gracie snoozed while I started getting the material for my Friday class organized.

After the 1+ hour Friday rush hour drive home.
Call her "school weary"...and me too.

Friday is our longest and hardest day.  The best part is that we don't have to leave home in the dark since we don't have to be at school until 10:00 a.m. or even a little later.  We arrived this week about 10:15 and took a nice walk on the Woodduck trail.  Once inside, we had time to get organized before going to the Writing Center for another 50 minute stint.  The walk helped settle Gracie, and she snoozed right through three student conferences and a talk with the English Department Chair who came in to tell me that he didn't have a fourth class Spring semester for me after all.  From the Writing Center, we went to the Open Computer Lab to pick up the TurningPoint clicker bag that I planned to use with my ENGL 90 students during our class that lasts from 1 to 4 p.m.  The clickers turn a PowerPoint about the comma, for example, into a game show.  I hope students like it because these are time consumming to create.  Happily, the lab stays open now until 5 p.m., so I am able to return the bag after class. 

Once back in the office, Gracie went back to sleep on her bathmat, and I worked on my virtual course sites in the course delivery system.  The full-time people (UFTs) get to set up schedules they like instead of grabbing for the courses that others didn't want like us contingency folks, so most of them had lit out to start their weekends.  The hall was quiet and the often busy back door by the door to the office I use was not swinging open and shut as it often does.  Suddenly, Gracie barked.  I jumped!  I can't always hear her growl, even in a relatively quiet room, but I can sure hear her bark.  I looked up to see a startled student standing in the door.  Gracie barked again.

"No, Gracie," I said.  "No barking!"  Service dogs can be denied entrance to places if they bark and growl and misbehave in other ways.  Barking is definitely not good!

"Sorry," the student said edging backward slightly.

"No, no," I said, my hand now in Gracie's collar.  "She shouldn't bark.  Come in," I insisted.  As soon as he sat down, Garcie wiggled away from me and rush him, her tail wagging.  Since he didn't look like he was interested in petting her--who could blame him?--I reigned her in.  We talked briefly; then it was time for class.

I had planned all week to give Gracie another rawhide stick to chew during the long 3 hour class.  I did, and she chewed on it the entire class, for 3 hours!  I hope she wasn't imagining that it was the student that had startled us (just kidding). 

So that was our week.  Nearly--but not quite--a total success.  Next week we have to go to the campus a fourth day for not-to-be-missed department meeting.  I wonder if the adjuncts like me who don't usually go but seem to get four classes every semester will come? I wonder if they get great schedules because they don't come?  I suppose now that I am an adjunct on just one campus, I don't have the excuse that work on the other keeps me from the meeting.  Politics.  I have never been a willing player in them.  Thinking about how to prevent another episode of barking is much more interesting to me at the moment anyway.

Back to School: Week 2

As those that teach know and those that don't probably don't know, teaching is a very labor intensive occupation, especially for contingent (part-time, adjunct) faculty like me.  If Gracie could talk, I know she would confirm this as our days together have taken on a more cerebral and less physically active demeanor.  I also am no longer able to write as much or as often either.  This is not just a matter of actual time, though that IS an issue. There is also the matter of mental space to think and dream.  Students and their writing as well as the management of my online course spaces and the planning of my two different on campus class sessions gobbles up 90% of my creativity.  Alas, the remaining 10% is not exactly the cream at the top of the bottle either.  That tends to go as soon as the cap if off the bottle and bottle is tipped to pour. 

Gracie was tolerant of this during week one of being actually back at school with students.  I think there was also the newness of it for her. Week two started out with a bang: the rabies shot and physical for Gracie followed by getting our orange collar and leash.  Then a bit of malaise settled in.  At least, that is how I felt.  Making Gracie rush through her morning routine has meant no more second walk to the edge of the creek to stare at the ducks and the stubby docks those lucky enough to live creek-side have.  Instead, I was telling Gracie to hurry up in the dark and to not bark at the paper delivery person.  Then I was encouraging her to wolf down her food so I could get dressed and we could head out to make the hour long drive to White Bear Lake, the sun rising in our bloodshot eyes. 

Wednesday, Gracie pulled out the sun room doorstop and started to chew it.  I was too absorbed in responding to students' e-mail questions to notice until Bruce came home, saw what was happening, and took it away from her. 

Thursday at school, she went after the wooden doorstop in the office I am currently using (along with other part-time instructors at Century College).  Clearly, all the watching me teach and watching me work on the computer and not having me play with her was creating some oral aggression; I needed to find something more appropriate for her to chew, something that she could enjoy while I was in my office.  I  picked up a bag of rawhide chews at Walgreen's that promised to be especially digestible.  Inside the wrapping--extra bonus--was supposed to be some meat paste.  Since Gracie likes the chicken flavored toothpaste that we've been using, I thought this paste would add a bonus she would like.

Fridays, we leave a little bit later in the day than we do on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  However, I had created a clicker presentation (Turning Point) on the sentence to use with the three hour, pre-composition 1 class I'm teaching this semester and spent that morning time, fine tuning that instead of running with Gracie as we did the previous Friday.  We have a long day Fridays: an hour in the writing center, another hour in my office, and, finally, a three hour class.  We take a break midway through that class, but I am unable to leave the classroom since doing that would require making everyone leave the room and then locking the door.  In addition, students often want to talk to me or ask questions of me during the break. 

We got to the campus a little early.  I had a few things to print, so I gave Gracie one of the rawhide, paste-lined chews.  She loved it and dug right in, settling with it under the desk.  When it was time to go to the writing center, however, Gracie was not interested in leaving with me.  Several of the full-time and therefore highly judgemental members of the English faculty were standing in a cluster outside my office as we emerged.  "She wants to stay and chew her rawhide," I explained as I more-or-less dragged Gracie out of the room.  They gave me a look that I'm sure someone from IHDI would have given me too as this was a very unprofessional looking scene.  Of course, I looked like a bully for making cute Gracie go where she didn't want to go.  

Gracie was restless and needed to be petted during our entire time in the writing center, leaving me to help a couple students with one hand on the table and the other on Gracie under the table.  The writing center staffer on duty when we are likes faculty to walk around making sure students are on task but the center was crowded and I didn't want to chance another "dragging" or appearance of dragging scene.  

After our time there was up, Gracie practically dragged me back to the office.  I thought briefly about bringing the chew to class but decided that her consumption of it was potentially distracting--crunching and tearing and slurping--for this particular class.  Gracie was not any happier leaving this delicious and satisfying treat a second time.  The chew as turning out to be too successful.  For most of the class, Gracie stood by the desk starring at the students.  At one point, she started to chew on a cord coming out of the technology desk.  Luckily the TLC tutor spotted her and alerted me so that disaster could be averted.  At that point, I attached Gracie to me by clipping her leash to my belt with our trusty carabiner and circled the room helping students who were now working at individual computers.  This held her interest and she even managed to elicit a few forbidden pets from them.  At the end of class, Gracie again dragged me back to the office to get back to her rawhide chew.  I decided to stay while she finished the darn thing up.  I recalled then how she had gone back to the spot where she found a chicken bone I wouldn't let her keep this summer repeatedly for over a week until, I suspect, the smell of the darn thing had been finally washed away by a combination of rain and that neighbor's built-in sprinkling system (the one that waters the lawn even during an actual rainstorm).  Obviously, Gracie is a very unusual dog with a highly developed long-term memory.

So, what am I to do?  Here is my new plan for week 3.  I will not give her another one of those rawhide chews until Friday at the beginning of the long class.  Then she will not have to leave it anywhere that she is then obsessed with getting back to.  Maybe given three hours, she will finish it up.  If not, we can stay on campus doing maintenance work on my online course sites in my office until she does since the campus is staying open until 6 p.m. now.  The traffic is better from 5:30 p.m. on and all the other English faculty will be gone.  What about before that class; what about the rest of the week?  I will pay more attention to her, for one thing.  We will also go for a run together Friday mornings to burn off a bit of her extra energy.  Will all this work?  I'll let you know next week.