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.
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.
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. |
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.
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