Email from a concerned parent

Teaching

For the fourth or fifth time in my career, a parent reached out today. She didn’t identify which student is hers, but it’s someone in my premed writing classes. She said students were upset about the “volume” of essays in a short time.

I wrote back, explaining that we only have three essays in the quarter. I told her when they were due and why they were spaced the way they were. (One is a scaffolding assignment for another, for example.) I also stressed that each assignment was on the syllabus from before the class started, with instructions and due dates.

And then I told her this:

“On the first day, I also shared my own experience with being overwhelmed in college (students in my circumstances have a less than 1% chance of getting a bachelor’s degree). I asked them to talk to me if things started going wrong, if they started falling behind, etc., saying that we could work it out together. I explained that the only way I got through college successfully was communicating with my instructors.

“Thus, I’m really disappointed by your email.

“Rather than the students engaging with me, someone’s mother has been dispatched.”

The mom got back to me. She said the context I provided, which her kid left out, assured her that I was reasonable about my expectations and schedule. And she apologized.

Share
1 comment

Too stressed to think of a good title

Chronic Pain, Teaching

Two stressors have risen in awful prominence lately.

First, health. (Warning: this is gross.) Several weeks ago, my gastro doc asked me to do a cleanse, to determine if I have IBS-C (her guess) or IBS-D (my guess). It’s D. It’s so D. Now, after the cleanse, my diarrhea is so much worse, both in frequency and, grossly, consistency. I have to carry wipes with me to the bathroom, if I hope to be able to put clothes back on after I go.

Naturally, the clean up takes a while, and at work, the lights (on timers), turn off before I’m done.

Yesterday I was dealing with that, and then when I went to bed, I turned my head and my neck went out. It was extremely painful: I couldn’t control my tears, in addition to not being able to move my head. Hubby had to lift me up so I could take medication; the lifting made me scream.

It was the third time in the last five weeks that my neck has done that.

So I’m exhausted, and I’m worried, and all of this is exacerbated by my other big stressor:

Work.

The university is up to something. All UWP lecturers are being moved to the Writing Center, we’re told. The profs in my department heard the news at the same time.

This decision, about how writing will be taught, was made without input from a single writing instructor.

It has also been made without the larger senate being notified. It really seems like having most of the courses in a department being taught by people outside the department, not to mention gutting a department that serves all undergraduates, would be something the senate should have to vote on, right?

(It’s not the first time campus-wide decisions about writing instruction have been announced to us without us being given any advanced notice, the opportunity to advise, or without the senate being informed.)

The university is not being forthcoming about what this change means. In fact, they often claim they can’t answer our questions because we have a union, which is 100% bullshit.

Then, this afternoon, my husband told me he met an app developer who has a couple of employees who have also been hired by UC Davis to create an app to grade essays (we would upload our rubric and some general comments and the AI would do all the grading). The developer said grading would take seconds and that it’s obvious the university would need fewer writing teachers.

Of course, writing teachers know that’s not how grading works. Even those teachers who grade with a points-based rubric, instead of holistically, like many of us do, could never trust AI and some impersonal comments to do the work.

AI isn’t smart enough yet. I can’t think of a single writing assignment I have that could be responded to in that way.

My doctors would like me to have less stress, but just writing this out has made my neck tighter. I’m really worried about my health, and I’m really worried about my job. And I live in a country where my healthcare is dependent on my job.

Share
0 comments

25 Years of Teaching

Teaching

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself telling my students how rare something was:

“In my [pause while I did the math] 25 years of teaching, I have never read an essay that . . .”

I stopped and wrote myself a note: “Celebrate.”

My celebrations are usually low key. Birthdays are quiet dinners with friends and family and small celebrations with my beloved book group. I’ve skipped all my graduations. Four of my five books have come out without a big party. If some friends hadn’t thrown me something for my PhD, there wouldn’t have been a real Party (with a capital P) for just me in my adult life.

In the summer of 1998, I taught for the first time. I realized what I was supposed to be doing: teaching.

Thus, on Thursday, after I turn in my grades for classes 326, 327, and 328, I will see colleagues and former students and raise a drink to a quarter century of a job I love.

Share
0 comments

Weekly Wrap Up

Chronic Pain, Misc–karmic mistakes?, Teaching

The third week of classes is almost over. Most of my students are going to be okay. A couple are not. A few are awesome.

In addition to the usual course load, I’m working with two of my former comedy students to produce half hour “goodbye” sets (they’re graduating): something I used to do before the pandemic. It’s a lot of work, but I’ve known these kids for years, and I want to give them a proper sendoff.

Anubis just got his stitches out, after yet another bladder surgery. An unfortunate bout of diarrhea means we need to rent a carpet cleaner soon.

I saw John Mulaney at the Golden One Center. I love him, but I don’t ever want to see comedy in a venue like that again. It’s too big. And I was seated in the front row balcony–a really narrow space. Every time someone had to pee, I worried one of us was going to fall over to our deaths. Is there a little bit of plastic to protect your drink from falling? Yes. Protection from YOU falling? Nope.

After almost four month, I was finally able to re-start my allergy treatment, at a different clinic. Because it’s been so long, they had to take my dose way down, and I have to go in every week now. On top of that, I still go to my regular UCD place to get my Xolair shots twice a month.

In other words, I used to have two shot appointments a month. Now, because UCD can’t seem to find an allergist, I have six. That sucks.

I got to see the National Theatre Live production of The Book of Dust, at the Tower Theater. They did a really beautiful job with it. It was the first time my friend and former Oxford assistant and I had seen each other in a long time.

I have discovered there’s a technical term for another way in which my body is weird.

I saw my ENT last week, because ever since Covid, or whatever I had at the very end of 2019, my right ear has been off: feeling stopped up, with low level pain. My ears have never been great: any change in elevation, even going to the foothills, is painful. It also makes me look awful: my eyes start to water uncontrollably.

In his exam, my ENT asked me to pop my ears.

I explained I couldn’t do that. He assured me I could. So I plugged my nose and blew.

“Oh, wow. You actually can’t. Nothing in your ear moved at all.”

He used a complex scientific term for what I was supposed to be able to do, one I can’t remember now and which isn’t coming up when I search for it.

I honestly hadn’t realized that everyone else could just pop their ears at will; I just thought my painful ears were part of everything hurting when it shouldn’t.

The good news: there’s apparently a treatment we can try, after we run a few hearing tests. As much as I travel, I hope it helps.

Finally, the Dean said a couple of week ago that if I only had 11 students for Dublin in the Fall, we couldn’t go. I did one last push. And it paid off. My 12th student has enrolled, so Dublin, here we come!

Share
3 comments

One little reason why Maus matters

Teaching, Words, words, words

In some of my classes, I offer book club extra credit. Students read a book, and we meet during finals week to talk about it.

Several years ago, I chose Maus for my Writing in Social Justice class.

We had a wonderful discussion, but one moment will stay with me forever. One student said Maus taught her about the camps.

The rest of us were aghast. She knew about the Holocaust, right? Yes, but she had never heard of the camps.

She thought all of the Jews and other people the Nazis didn’t like were simply shot on sight.

She had never watched any of the great films: Life is Beautiful, Schindler’s List. She didn’t know where and how Anne Frank died.

A student dedicated to social justice was missing a key part of history.

That’s why we must not ban books; we must read them.

Share
0 comments

Weekly Wrap Up

Misc–karmic mistakes?, Museum Musings, Teaching

Buckle up: this one’s a doozy.

The Bad:

Some things I’m going through this week, you’re going through too. We watch as Haiti gets wracked by another earthquake.

Those of us in California got our voter guide for the ridiculous recall. Governor Newsom is in trouble for enforcing life saving measures. When things started to loosen up and our economy was once again good, polls showed he would survive it.

Now, with the Delta variant and a bunch of selfish, stupid assholes who won’t get vaccinated, we need to mask up again.

And the polls are showing he might lose. ‘Muerica!

We could go the way of Florida, with one of the 40+ bozos on the ballot signing an executive order forbidding us from mask mandates.

In more personal news, the other day when I came home, I saw a man walking out of our complex with two bikes–one looked like the boy’s.

I almost shouted, “hey!” But I didn’t want to be a Karen, accusing an African American man of something before I got my facts straight. So I ran around the house first to make sure it was my boy’s bike. It was, but by the time I circled back, the thief was gone.

I’d been wanting the boy to donate it, since he doesn’t use it anymore, so we’re not hurt by the loss, except for the sense of violation.

The Huh?!?

I am supposed to have 50 students this term, but I only have 20 active participants. I usually lose a couple, but since most students who take upper division writing in Summer Session 2 are sort of stuck, I’ve never lost this many. They’re mostly students who have already “walked,” having put off their writing class until the very last moment.

The only thing that’s changed, though, is that I put a prerequisite on Module 1. It’s always a battle to have students actually read the syllabus and to go through the Modules instead of trying to do the assignments without having done any of the readings.

This term, Module 1 wouldn’t open for them until they read the syllabus. And they didn’t even have to read the pages, really; they just had to click on them.

I kept getting students emailing me on the first two days, asking me to open the assignments. I cheerfully explained that they just had to read the syllabus first.

And more than half of the class dropped.

In other words, I scared away a bunch of graduating pre-med students by just asking them to read something.

The Sad:

My AT&T contract was up this week, so I finally cut the cable cord. I know most people did so a long time ago, but until recently, I needed to have cable to record (and burn to DVD) every Simpsons and Doctor Who, etc. for use in class. Now, with students able to access everything streaming, and with my burning system not working with AT&T’s set up, I find that almost everything I watch on cable/DVR is on TCM. It’s hard to justify paying over a hundred a month for TCM and a few shows on other networks.

Every week, I would go through what was coming up on TCM and record beloved favorites I wanted to revisit, new to me works that sounded fun, and classic horror for the boy. I discovered a lot of wonderful things that way, and I loved TCM hosts telling me trivia.

I know I can find old movies on other sites, but I also know that some of the obscure ones won’t be there, and that I’m less likely to go hunting for those gems, when streaming sites bombard me with all the unwatched contemporary stuff I like.

The Annoying:

For the last year, I’ve been trying to get my various healthcare providers to refund me for payments I made after I hit my out-of-pocket copay last summer. My CVS pharmacy copays are still outstanding. I spent an hour on the phone with them this week, which was possible only because I bitched about them not answering my emails, on Twitter, and then they gave me the number to call.

A good twenty minutes of the call was them trying to find me in the system. The agent had to reboot her whole computer.

When she finally found me, she asked for the prescription numbers I was calling about.

“Can’t you pull up my list of prescriptions and payments to see what I got after I hit the maximum last year?”

“No.”

And that’s bullshit.

I told her I’d have to call her back.

As all my friends know, I’m on LOTS of meds. There are three just for GERD.

Luckily, the Target CVS pharmacists printed out a list of everything I filled, so I can spend who knows how long reading numbers to CVS tomorrow.

The Disheartening:

Remember how I discovered I might have a new peach allergy? Apparently, it might be that I’m just allergic to them when certain things are in bloom.

But I found out I have a sensitivity to figs, too, when I eat a lot of them.

So maybe it’s an allergy, but maybe it’s just an oral reaction to too much fruity goodness.

But I will NOT stop eating too many figs when they’re in season. They’re my favorite fruit, and they’re not available that often.

The Good:

Now that Karlissa can go to museums again, and since we’re still wanting to do that museum book, we had to see the Van Gogh immersive exhibit in SF.

Melissa took me on Wednesday for my birthday. We had an amazing lunch and then got to meditate on Van Gogh.

It was wonderful.

The Good, but Tainted:

Last October, it was time for me to ask that Davis grant me another three-year contract. According to the union rules, if I can prove I’m “excellent,” they have to give me a 6% raise. I also asked for a 3% merit raise, for the textbook Melissa and I published in Spring 2020.

Our new contract year started on the first of July, but I only learned this week that I’m indeed staying at Davis and that I’ve been granted the raise.

However.

The letter said the University Committee on Personnel tried to stop me from getting the merit raise.

Even though Melissa has already gotten that raise for our book.

You see, they wanted to enforce a rule they’re trying to put in place that lecturers can only get merit raises when they win a university teaching award.

Luckily, the Vice-Provost and Dean overrode them, explaining that the draconian measure isn’t in effect *yet*.

What makes it draconian, you ask? According to the new rule, only four lecturers could ever get a merit raise at UCD in any given year. Amazing lecturers will also therefore be pitted against each other.

I’ve already won a teaching award, so I will probably never get a merit raise again. As one of our tenured colleagues put it to Melissa, we could win the Pulitzer, and they would tell us no.

I could stop mentoring, serving on committees, teaching the independent and group studies the university gets paid for, but that I get nothing for, researching, etc, and get the same excellence raise.

If I were smart, I would stop.

Teaching faculty like me don’t get to decide what the standards are for raises. The research faculty have decided that our research will never be rewarded, even when it directly relates to our teaching, and that clearly outstanding teaching can only be rewarded in an excessively limited manner.

I wonder how they would react if someone got to make the same rules about their raises. What about if only “award-winning” research counted?

While I’m happy I got my-probably-last merit raise, I will also admit that the first thought that popped to mind was how the Department of Education might decide my monthly payments need to be even higher!

Which bring us to:

The Student Loans:

When Melissa and I had a wonderful lunch at Chao Pascao in SF, I got a call from my contact at Mohela. She said my request to de-consolidate the loans has been approved!

!!!

When the consolidation went through, it took about a month before all of the sites updated to reflect it. So I’m trying not to panic that everything looks the same now–that everything still looks consolidated.

I don’t know how all of this is going to work. Will everything go back to the way it was, as I hope? Or will I have to fight them to recognize the 14 years of payments I made, even after de-coupling? When I start the TEPSLF application again, how long will it take? Will it even get approved? (Less than 1% of people who filed for forgiveness under Trump were accepted. We don’t have numbers under Biden yet.)

I’m going to hire a student loan consultant to help me through everything.

I haven’t let out the breath I’ve been holding yet. I won’t be able to until I see the sites say I’ve made all those qualifying payments.

But this is the face of a woman after she got a great call from Mohela:

A couple of hours after this picture was taken, Melissa and I were having a drink on the rooftop of the Van Gogh exhibit.

When my phone rang, it told me Senator Dianne Feinstein was calling. One of her staff members wanted some more information from me so they could contact the Department of Education on my behalf.

I got to tell him that they might not need to intervene.

Say what you want about the Senator, and I know a lot of my friends don’t like her, but she was the last government official to receive my request for help.

And she’s the *only* one who’s responded.

Thanks, Dianne!

Share
1 comment

Weekly Wrap Up

Misc–karmic mistakes?, Movies & Television & Theatre, Teaching

This has been quite a week.

As you’re all aware, the Department of Education is behaving terribly. Mohela said they would help. I don’t think I’ll be able to fully release the breath I’ve been holding since Tuesday until I can *see* that my loans have been de-consolidated on all of the websites.

And then the fun of figuring out the next step will begin.

But that’s not all that’s happened this week.

A beloved colleague died.

I learned that a family member has cancer.

A student said something hyperbolic in an email about suicide, which meant many hours of talking to her and to the powers that could help her.

It’s incredibly hot. The kind of hot where you feel rather ill even in an air-conditioned room.

The highest percentage of students ever failed my untimed, open-everything library quiz. After reading a chapter on how to research and watching a screen capture video I made specific to our library, students are asked to find a nonacademic source, a book, and a peer-reviewed article on The Simpsons. The instructions specifically tell them not to find me something about OJ Simpson, Jessica Simpson, the Simpson’s paradox, etc. So when a third of my students linked to an article about the Simpson’s paradox, I cut and pasted the instructions into the comments, to explain why they got a zero on that question.

I then sent out an announcement about it.

A couple of days later, I got an email from a student who said she didn’t understand my comment or why she was marked wrong. She explained that “the Simpson’s paradox” was in the title of the article, so how was she wrong?!?

In three weeks, these students will be done with the last writing/research class most of them will ever be asked to take.

I had to see my gyno’s colleague because of more issues with bleeding (this will apparently be “Summer of Blood 2: The Bloodening”). When I was getting checked in, the receptionist asked if I wanted to pop back for the allergy shots I was supposed to get the next day, so I only had to come once. Then, the allergy nurse said I needed to meet the new allergy doc, so she could refill my prescription, and asked if I wanted to do that after I saw the gyno. And then the nurse appeared, having to wait for all the shots to go in (there are four, and they’re complicated). It took me a moment, though, in the exam room, to figure out he was trying to check me in for the allergy appointment first. So we had to find the other nurse to take me to the right room.

And the gyno said no sex for a month.

What’s been good?

I started Blindspotting on Starz; it’s beautiful. I wish I had the dance vocabulary to talk about some of the physical work they do on the show. The slam poetry they incorporate is fantastic too. Highly recommended.

Dante stopped watching Schitt’s Creek last year, after a break up, but this week I used my horrible mental health to explain why we had to go back in. And now he’s seen the whole series.

I got to take Melissa to Tapa the World to celebrate her birthday.

I got to make a Mexican feast for a couple of friends last night.

The main thing, though, that has gotten my through this week is the outpouring of support that I’ve gotten from you. So many of you offered to help. So many of you gave your sympathy, love, and prayers.

I am immensely blessed to have you all in my life.

And so, for you, another new wrap pic:

Yes, the only room with good lighting in my apartment is the downstairs bathroom.
Share
0 comments

Weekly Wrap Up

Chronic Pain, Misc–karmic mistakes?, Movies & Television & Theatre, Teaching

Last weekend, I finished grading my SCC lit class, which leaves me with just three courses for the next three weeks. And then I’ll get a whole week off before my summer courses start. (My goal, in addition to finishing my three courses successfully, is to prep my June course well enough that I can actually take that week off from work.)

The end of the SCC lit class could have gone better. One struggling student cheated on both her last paper and the final. Another, who needed an A+ on every remaining assignment to pass, skipped assignments, turned in a research paper without any research in it, and then turned in an incomplete final AFTER I’d turned in the grades.

(Did he tell me he needed another day? Of course not. That would entail communicating with me.)

My comedy students’ final is soon, so I need to write my routine, since I’m the MC.

A beloved colleague brought my attention to a temporary fix the DOE might have for people like me, who paid an incredible amount of money to the “wrong” plans. So I’m filing for that. Do they want ink signatures from UCD to prove I have worked there all this time? They do. Is the website confusing, because it says I’m not eligible since I, like everyone else, is in automatic Covid deferment, but then also have a paragraph about how I should ignore the giant warning on every singe page about that, since they’re the ones who deferred me? Yes.

I tried Jupiter Rising, but didn’t like it. Tried Invincible. Might like it. Tried Hacks with Jean Smart. Fucking loved it. Started Ted Lasso. Will binge more soon. Couldn’t quite get through Army of the Dead last night. Started and finished this season of Shrill, which is awesome. Watched Jason Alexander et al in The Sisters Rosensweig via Zoom and The ABCS of Love via the Sacramento French Film Festival.

I’m mourning Paul Mooney and Charles Grodin.

My upper division students are struggling, because I’m making them write a grown up argument (one in which the thesis is actually debatable (for reasonable people) and defendable, and one that works to inform and persuade its intended audience, and one that fully and fairly engages with counter-argument).

You’d be surprised how many draft theses are unconstitutional, EVEN AFTER I SAID IN THE VIDEO ABOUT THIS THAT THEY SHOULD NOT MAKE UNCONSTITUTIONAL ARGUMENTS.

I spent 9 straight hours giving feedback on drafts on Thursday. Then, I tried to join some high school friends for a Zoom reunion, but I felt so sick with exhaustion that I had to go lie down.

The most stressful thing this week, though, was another visit with my TMJ dentist.

I told his assistant that I wanted to talk about getting a lower night guard and/or a dental device for mild apnea (since the dentist is convinced my tongue is in the wrong place when I sleep). The dentist was dismissive of anyone who’s vouched for lower guards. (“Well, I guess your friends have made literally thousands of upper night guards like I have, right?”) But he agreed to let me have a lower one and “run [my] own little experiment.”

But, I said. If you think I need that apnea dental device, shouldn’t I get that and not use any type of guard?

We came to consensus on trying that first. I have to do a sleep study for insurance to approve it.

Then he brought up all the other things he wants to do: the frenectomy, sawing down some of the protruding bones in my mouth, braces, etc.

I said I’d like to go in stages since I have other doctors who want to do things to my body that are also extreme.

We left that conversation with him knowing nothing more about me, but with me knowing about all of his surgeries. Sigh.

He said to get the sleep study done and then we’d do a scan for the device.

When I was alone again with the assistant, who had been in the room the whole time, he tried to schedule me for a scan for a lower night guard.

“That’s not where we landed,” I explained. “We need to schedule a scan.”

“For braces?”

No.

Once I got him to realize we were trying for the apnea device, he wanted to get the device going right away.

“Don’t I have to get the sleep study first?”

“I don’t think so. They’ll want to study you with it in.”

“But the doctor said I needed the study before insurance would authorize the device.”

“Oh, yeah. That makes sense.”

He scheduled me for a scan next week, saying we can do the scan without authorization, but I don’t trust him, so I’m calling tomorrow to talk to someone who can parse conversations better.

Overall, though, it was a good week.

My son and I celebrated the end of his first year in grad school with a sushi feast.

A beloved friend got me an amazing gift:

And I am celebrating that, as of last night, it’s no longer been a year and seven months since I’ve had sex with another person.

Yay vaccines!

Share
0 comments

Weekly Wrap Up

Chronic Pain, Misc–karmic mistakes?, Simpsonology, Teaching

Last week definitely had more ups than downs. This week, not so much.

The bad:

Both the boy and I had to deal with medical b.s. Mine included driving all the way to Sacramento with a migraine, to see my TMJ specialist, only to be told that my appointment had completely disappeared from their system.

I’m also prepping for some facet injections in my back. The pain clinic and I are sort of at a stand-still. I don’t respond well enough to the treatments we’re trying, and they’re also a little dangerous (since I’m so young, I shouldn’t have frequent disc injections). They want to burn the nerves in my lumbar spine, but I’m unconvinced, both because nerve pain isn’t the only thing going on and because I’ve had a nerve burn done in my neck, and it backfired. Instead of my brain saying, “we’re not getting pain signals from her neck anymore, so let’s not make her feel pain,” my brain said, “holy fucking shit! They BURNED HER NERVES! Let’s send the regular pain signals and the pain one should feel after being burned!”

The facet injections are a compromise, basically. They’re hoping to show me, through it, that a nerve burn would work there.

Anubis decided that two family members having health problems wasn’t enough, so his urethra got blocked. Now we’re monitoring his pee, and Dante has to help him keep is clean (Anubis’s surgery to widen his urethra has helped, but not quite enough.)

We didn’t get to really celebrate St. Urho’s Day, due to the chaos.

In other news, I took a break from celebrating getting out of medical and consumer debt to check on how those student loans were coming.

Borrowed: 133,733

Paid back so far: 88,744

With interest, what I owed Tuesday: $154,213

My laptop’s keyboard is starting to have sticky keys. Apparently, it’s a known issue, and they should fix it for free, but the fixers say I have to be prepared to be without it for a couple of weeks. My desktop can’t yet do Zoom, so I’ve had to order a web cam with mic before I can get the laptop into the shop.

The meh:

My 300th college course began this week! It’s an intro to lit class at SCC; unfortunately, it’s an 8 week class. And while I got rid of a few units (postmodernism, the Southern Gothic, and fairy tales), it’s still a challenge to do a semester course in half a semester.

5 of the 26 enrolled students didn’t respond to emails or log on to Canvas the first week. Half of the rest are already failing because they haven’t turned in the homework. I’ve reached out to everyone, and most are telling me they just didn’t think the course would be time consuming. When I explain that they would have physically been in a room with me for 6 hours and 40 minutes each week if we were in person, and that they should therefore be prepared to do at least that much (which is much less than the Carnegie expectation of 20 hours/week for this class), they are shocked.

I’m not shocked that they’re shocked, but I’m disheartened.

Many of my students are working full time and also taking a full load of courses, which an 8-week course isn’t compatible with.

Half of the students hated “Hills Like White Elephants,” and I had fun reading their interpretations of what the “operation” was. The most creative was that the American wanted Jig to join a prostitution ring. I also included “Bullet Points” by Jericho Brown in this first week, to show them that poetry isn’t just dead white guys writing about daffodils. Most of the students loved it; the one who wants to be a cop found it offensive.

Next week, we do plays: Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune and Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play. It’s my first time teaching the latter; I’m cautiously optimistic. Am I having them watch the “Cape Feare” episode of The Simpsons first? Of course!

I finished my four Winter courses, and I got the syllabi and Canvas pages up for my three Davis Spring courses, which was quite a feat. There were a couple of days, including yesterday, when my brain broke.

The good:

I got to see the Sklar Brothers and Grep Proops perform virtual shows.

Spring came.

I took The New Yorker‘s recommendation to watch The Bureau, which is excellent.

I had many students thank me for my work last quarter. A few of them realizing how much time I spend writing to them and talking to them is the only thing that makes it worth it. One student wrote this:

“I have never had another teacher like you before. You terrified me for all of the right reasons. I kept feeling called out in the beginning. I used to write papers for the grader instead of the purpose because of their biased writing styles. In fact, I used to do everything to please other people because I thought that is how life works. I know now how incorrect that way of living is. Maybe this wasn’t your intention, but I understand how I want to live my life from now on. You taught the class with humor, honesty, and empathy: three characteristics I strive to perfect one day. There was never any bullshit, and for that, I am so thankful. You taught the class not only how to become better writers, but also how to be better people.”

I’m pretty sure “[terrifying] for all of the right reasons” should be on my tombstone.

Share
0 comments

Trump team misrepresents evidence

Teaching, Who’s Your Source

This week, we’re watching the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. The first defense move was to argue that he could not even be impeached.

NPR reported this week that one constitutional scholar has a problem with how he was cited in the Trump team’s defense brief.

His argument was that Presidents could, in fact, be impeached under these circumstances, but Trump’s team said he said the opposite.

I would never let my students get away with that.

Share
0 comments