Day 11 - Mask mandate RESCINDED; we do NOT need to mask indoors

Dealing with incompetency today…

College No. 1  Administration advises that masking is optional for staff and students at this campus. Hmmm…just 5 weeks ago, Admin issued a mask mandate, insisting that all instructors wear an N95 mask. Now, masks are no longer required? Masking continues at College No. 2 and the high school where I’m teaching.

3/14/22. Monday 

6:00 – L. leaves for her 18-hour day at Otis.

10:30-10:45 – I’m up so I go downstairs to say good morning to the animal. She woke up hours ago, when L. left, and has had ample time to s--t in the house and on the patio (sigh). I rub her tummy three times, she grabs her tennis ball, and we go outside. I wait for her to go potty and return inside: coffee for me, cheese for her. I go upstairs.

10:45-11:30 – I finish grading that last essay. It’s a disaster.

11:30-11:50 – I scan and upload the student’s paper.

11:50-12:15 – I check the Canvas shells for today’s classes and then go through email at College No. 1.

L. is having a bad day today.  She texts that she’s unable to complete a screen-printing assignment that she’s been working on because of the protocol, rules, and red tape surrounding the screen-printing department and the work order requests. The fact that L. actually sent me a text means the day is going quite badly for her.

12:15-1:15 – Shower.  I sit in the shower, drink my coffee, and ice my eyes. I listen to Be Wealthy and Smart and Marketplace Morning. Lotion. I wear a “sexy librarian” outfit in keeping with my Curated Closet project: a white camisole with a mini-gray sequin cardigan, black skirt, gray flannel tights, and black ankle boots.

1:15-1:30 – I pack my car with all my various bags and leave.

1:30-2:40 – Driving. I  put my make-up on in the car and eat half a turkey burger, with cheese, spring lettuce, tomato, and avocado. I listen to Citations Needed.

-So College No. 1 announced that masks are no longer required but failed to inform anyone that Parking Lot D, where I and numerous staff and students park, was demolished. Apparently, this occurred over Spring Break in accordance with the never ending construction project.  It’s been three years now…and very much like the Winchester House.

I pull into Parking Lot D, business as usual, before I notice that there is no parking lot! I end up trapped in a chain-link nightmare, surrounded by massive construction equipment.  It takes forever to get out of this maze and, as a result, I’m 5 minutes late to class. The white male instructor who has the class before me and looks to be around 80-years-old, trolls me by saying, “I can’t leave until you get here. I’m not allowed to leave the students alone.” Fuck you old man. I’ve been 10 minutes early every Monday for the past 10 weeks and you’re gonna come at me like this?  And what are four, unattended, female students going to do to the classroom?  Tear the computer off the desk?  Take your N95 and get the f—k out of here!

2:40-5:30 – Today is the Midterm. I made the Announcement last week, posted the Midterm review, and the Midterm is the first thing we’re doing today. I can see that my online students started taking it at 2:30 sharp. At 3:00, I notice that my F2F highschool student has still not logged into the Midterm so I call her out on it and tell her to start taking it. This constitutes a 30-minute delay and we’re running out of time for lecture and the podcast.

The other three F2F students look at me blankly and say, “Oh…we’re supposed to be taking the Midterm right now?” I’m not even polite when I say, “What did you think we were doing?  You’ve been sitting here for 30 minutes.”  One of them says, “We were waiting for you…” I respond, “To do what? All of you know the Midterm is today and I heard the instructor say as he left, ‘Good luck on the Midterm.’ When were you planning on taking it?” [you dumb bitches].

The Midterm’s been posted to Canvas for the past two hours and most of my online students have already finished the 50-question, multiple choice exam.  These idiots just started. Throughout the entire semester, I wondered why these FOUR students continued to report to a brick-and-mortar classroom when they can attend class in the privacy of their own homes.  Today, I know the answer…they’re the stupidest ones.  Two of these students have a C in the class – one has a D.

-Two of the F2F students take the entire 90 minutes to complete a 50-question, multiple-choice Midterm. The rest of the students were done 45 minutes ago.

-I start grading my last 2 papers for Specialty Class 1B.

-Lecture today, but I cut it short; followed by a

-Podcast.

5:30-6:45 – Class dismissed. I post course content for Specialty Class 1B as the class starts in 20 minutes and drive home. I eat my apple, walnut, yogurt mixture on the way. I listen to Reveal - Behind the Blue Wall.

6:45-9:00 – Specialty Class 1B and the students take the Midterm, then listen to lecture. I post the grades for their Socratic Seminar assignments then return the papers I scanned last night via email.

-I break from class and finish grading the last two papers that I started working on in the 2:30 class. Then, I scan and upload their assignments.

-The students move onto the documentary.

-I post the grades for the last two papers I just graded and email them to the students.

-I post the Video Quiz.

9:00-10:00 – Class dismissed

-The student who never stops asking questions and will. not. shut. the. fuck. up. emails that she is unable to view her overall grade in the online grade book. I tell her that she has a 96% in the class and to contact the Canvas Help Desk for assistance in checking her grade because she’s obviously too dumb to figure it out.

-Another student – the same student who turned in ONE sentence for last semester’s Socratic Seminar assignment - submits a new Socratic Seminar assignment that is so horrible SHE SPELLED HER OWN NAME WRONG.   She has the nerve to email me and whine that she worked really hard on the assignment and deserves more than a 5 out of 50. She says she would like some advice for the next assignment.

You can start by using SPELL CHECK. I tell the student for the next paper to include standard capitalization and punctuation. Most of the paper is one, giant, run-on sentence and almost everything is misspelled. She also failed to capitalize names and proper nouns. I don’t pull any punches…I tell C. to look at my edits in the upper left hand corner and note that she misspelled her own name…her first AND last name.

Seriously?  You’re going to tell me that you worked soooo hard on a paper that you couldn’t even spell your name right? Her paper is FILLED with my edits because it’s poorly written and a disaster so there’s no need to ask what she could have done differently because I’m incredibly clear.

-30 minutes later I send her links to College No. 1’s Learning Center and Writing Lab.  Will she use these resources? No.

-A student emails me and wants to know why he got a 0 on the assignment. When I say, “I don’t see your essay, D.”, he emails me our email thread wherein I confirmed receipt of his essay two weeks ago.  Hey…it happens.  I take full responsibility and he re-sends his essay which means I’m still not done grading this f—king assignment.

-I take Attendance for both classes.

-I switch to College No. 2. I wrote about this in a previous blog post, but one of my college students from last semester received an F in the class, when she had actually earned a B, because her name was not listed on the Master Roster for Grade Compilation. This looked to have been some sort of technical glitch via Admissions and Records so I was unable to post her semester grade. I notified Admissions and Records of the problem in real time, as it was occurring, and submitted all the evidence – Attendance and Grades – that this student was enrolled in my class and earned a B.

Due to the fact that I diligently notified Admissions and Records of the issue and provided all of the requisite information for this student so they could rectify the problem and post her grade, Admissions and Records…gave her an F.  

Two weeks ago, I submitted a change of grade request on behalf of the student and forwarded the identical information to Admissions and Records, wherein they changed the student’s grade from an F to a B.  Tonight, I get an email from the student, contesting the B and saying she got an A in the class because she got an A on the Final. Wrong!

It’s amazing to me how stupid these college students are.  I hear this same sentiment repeatedly…”but I got an A on the [Midterm, Final]” But you failed 12 other assignments. I email her the point breakdown which takes time out of my day for an issue that should have been resolved when I was posting semester grades 3 months ago. I never hear from the student again.

10:00-10:15 – I check College No. 1’s Schedule of Classes for Fall Semester 2022 and enrollment looks bleak. One positive is 80-year-old Dr. R and “San Francisco” are OFF the schedule. Although I’m ON the schedule, my f—king Dept. Chair scheduled me for two, F2F classes…no online, hybrid, hyflex, hy-whatever for this semester.  I’m back in the classroom 100%. It’s unlikely my classes will fill…this college took the disastrous approach of canceling all online courses.  After two years of Distance Education and the skyrocketing price of gas, students do NOT want to return to the classroom. Unfortunately, College No. 1 is giving them no options and, as a result, they’re enrolling at other schools that do offer online options.

My Dept. Chair scheduled ONE of my TWO classes from 7:00-10:00 PM, at a brick-and-mortar. Who the hell is going to attend a F2F class [myself included], this late at night, after having been enrolled in TWO years of online instruction?  I wouldn’t even enroll in my class. I can’t say I’m all broke up about it…

10:15-10:45 – I get gas. Gas is $5.85 a gallon if you pay with cash at this gas station [cash discount]. All I have is $40, but $40 still doesn’t fill my tank.

10:45-11:15 – Return home. Kitchen duty and I prepare my lunch bag and ready my coffee for tomorrow. I bring in my trash cans.

11:15-11:45 – L. returns from Otis and we discuss her day, including the screen-printing debacle.

11:45-1:00 – bullet journal.

1:00-1:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed.  I set my alarm for 4:45.