TAMO

A weird discussion with a friend of mine on campus revealed yet another in a series of odd acronyms. This one is more of a bit of verbal short-hand in that it is used as a written code but also used to express a concept.

TAMO.

Then A Miracle Occurred.

The expression is used in high-end math when you can't work through a problem's process but you already know the outcome. The situation is usually described as working one's way from what is known backwards and then working it from the other end hoping that the two meet in the middle.

If it doesn't meet or doesn't meet exactly, the researcher can just type "TAMO" in the margin and it's considered 'complete'.

So...how many people out there would just like to be able to write TAMO on an electric bill or a rent check for when the goals don't meet the means?

-Me

I couldn't make this stuff up

Once more, an email from "That Student".

Can I take this test next week to give me more time to find out stuff or just take it tomorrow night?

I was left confused because she emailed me the notes and never put what chapters they are for.

What the HELL?

(more later)

GAH! Follow-up

This was the last line in an email I just received from "That Student".

"Please pass me in both of your classes because I depend on college for my education and the money to make ends meet in life!"

My official response:

Ms. XXX,

Let me make this perfectly clear: I will not pass you or fail you. You will succeed or fail based on your performance in class and for no other reason.

-Tom.

STAB IT. BURN IT. BURY IT. KILL IT.

GAH!

Although I am a firm believer that people should always attempt to educate themselves, I have must state that I am TIRED of ignorant people wasting my time.

It is one thing for someone to simply not be aware of a topic, and need some assistance to grasp the concept; that's what teachers are for.

Some people have difficulty grasping concepts and need additional help to make the connections that others seem to make more easily; that is what tutors are for.

It is another thing entirely for someone to:

• A) Not know something,
• B) Refuse to put forth the effort to learn it.
• C) Fail to apply it.
• D) Fabricate reasons why they don't / can't learn.
  
• E) Expect you to pass them because "they're just not getting it".

I believe that this all stems from the idea "no child left behind". I understand that children should not be left behind and perpetually set back in grade until you're left with an eighteen year old adult with the reading skills of a fourth-grader. Once you remove the ramifications of not-studying, applying your knowledge, etc. (they can't fail me), why should the child put forth any effort at all?

One of my students, a non-traditional student who is apparently a grandmother, believes that college should be just like the school where her grand babies go. If she doesn't pass an exam, she wants to re-take it, over and over again, until she does. Apparently this is a common technique in the public school system (though I don't know what grade) where her grandchild attends. She, the non-trad student (AKA "THAT student"), assumes that all education systems are like this and that if she just continually walks around clueless that she'll get passed because people are tired of looking at her.

Here's the kicker, she's on something called "Financial Aid Probation". Essentially, she has failed so many times previously, that the University (or the State / Fed) is going to suspend her Financial Aid unless she can pull her grades up. I agree with the idea that people who aren't getting the grades shouldn't be able to pull down thousands and thousands of dollars (and most likely not paying them back) - potentially removing funding from those people who -are- making the grade. So this student is faced with a challenge, pass your classes or loose your money.

She is in both my Intro to Sociology and my Intro to Criminology course. It turns out that she was in my Intro to Psychology course last spring (and failed - but only by 5 points). This term she is failing again - not scoring higher than 50% on any of her exams and once she scored 34% OUT OF 100%.

Normally, I would have written her off as an Ashley and let her fail without a second thought. Since she is a non-trad (a category of students who usually out-perform my other students), I tried to give her a bit more attention hoping that she would be like my other non-trad students and really contribute to the class.

NOPE.

She realizes that she's failing and she's continually panicking about it. I usually receive between three to four emails from her at a time; usually within the scope of 10 minutes. They all say about the same thing, usually with more and more panic in her tone each time. She has probably accessed every help desk, tutor and resource at the university to help her improve her grades, but the reality is that she just doesn't have the academic tools to be in college at this time.

It's no great failure to say that a person is not ready...yet. Usually it's a matter of intellectual focus rather than sheer brain power, but a University should not be used as an alternative form of Unemployment / Welfare. A university is a place of learning, a sanctuary for academic achievement (cue monastic chants in the background with a subtle mix of "Georgetown" from St. Elmo's Fire), and most importantly a means to change your life.

Not everyone is ready to change how they think about the world or their place in it. Until they are ready, they should not be at College.

I'm Done

That's right,

I'm done!

Today was the day of my final exams; Psychology, Sociology and Criminology all in one day. So for six hours straight today, with only a half-hour break every two hours, I was giving, grading and posting grades.

JOY.

I've been caught up with getting things finished for the term for the past week or so (tons of papers to grade) and haven't been posting much to the blog. There really hasn't been much to publish other than "Yes, I'm -still- reading papers". So I decided to postpone any substantive post until I was finished. And now...

I'M DONE!!

God it feels good to say that so I'll say it once more.

I'M FINALLY DONE!!!

Ok, anyway.

It's not that I don't like my job. I love my job. I even like a percentage of my students. However there's something that I need to get off my chest.

There is a new form of evil in the world. Yes,

E-vil

Back in the chapters of history, we all knew this horrible concept as simply as self-important girls who attempted to twist anything and anyone to do their bidding. Oddly enough they were able to turn schools, clicks and whole athletic teams into their disciples. You all knew them. They were at your school in one form or another. Their evil was known by another name:

HEATHERS

This evil was was thought to have been destroyed and forgotten with the shoulder pads for which they were known.

Stalking the halls like an unholy quadruplet of attitude (that's At-ta-tude for those who know how to pronounce the head-shake devil language spoken only by click-chicks, drag queens and poorly acted villains of the 80's), they simply assumed that their powers of accessorization and haircare gave them ultimate authority.

Now let us move forward to college, let's say a small University. This evil has been reborn not with shoulder pads or with poofy 80's hair, but with something much much worse.

Hip Huggers

Dressed like their momma's didn't teach them how to pull up their damned pants, the evil struts their way around our campus and heads turn.

The girls want to be them.

The guys want to be WITH them.

They are the spawn of an ancient evil.

And their name is:

ASHLEY

The Ashley, they are plural and are therefor named as such, are an evil horde of women that descended up on Shawnee's campus and more to the point, my classes. I have three Ashley's in Criminology, two in Psych and one in Sociology. Each one of them is a clone of the other. They do not participate in class, when they actually bother attending. Each of them had to be told "Do not text on your phone in my class," only once. I say once, not because they stopped the behavior, but actually because they just stopped coming to class.

Only attending on test days, sometimes missing the test day completely, they routinely scored below 50% even with an in-class review of the material on the previous class and hand-outs to help them study. To me, this was their inability, or unwillingness to put forth any effort towards their classes. According to one of the Ashley:

"Grades aren't important. Life is just like High School - it's not WHAT you know but WHO you know."

So now that we were winding up the course, the Ashley attempted to once again use their powers to their own end.

This is when one Evil met another kind of Evil.

Sparks flew through the air and the ground broke apart to spew fire and death.

The Ashley met opposition and for the first time in their lives (according to the shocked looks on their faces) they were not given what they wanted.

Yes.

I crushed their widdle egos.

I ruined their widdle lives.

I failed their sorry, hoochy-momma, crack-whore-thong wearin' asses!!

And...

I'm Done!

Expect more frequent updates now that

It's supposed to be ... Spring?

Well, that's the rumor that I've heard.

I'm out on my front porch this afternoon to enjoy a bit of the not-cold weather and guess what - it's still cold. The high today is just barely within the 50's. I was hoping to enjoy some not-winter-like weather and get some work done out on the front porch today. That doesn't seem to be a good choice since everytime the wind blows my fingers seem to stiffen.

Classes are going fairly well this week. There's nothing on the schedule; no exams or papers to grade. Next week, however, I get to tackle the mountain of Criminological ephemera that will be thrown at me in the shape of research papers. Can you hear the sound of joy in my voice? No? Well, that's because it's been squashed under the foot of aggravation. Every time I read my student's papers I'm hoping that I will at least be able to track what they are writing about; never mind how they're writing it. If I can at least follow, with some clarity, what they're talking about and where they're going with their topic, I'm fine. When it comes to HOW they write, I try not to get too freaked out. I remind myself that these students aren't what I would call 'academically minded'. Though part of me would hold them to a standard that I was used to at Ohio University, there is another part of me that is a bit more practical about such matters.

This is not the place to begin a crusade.

The University is slowly starting to up the bar on its students, but such things are done with patience and lots of meetings. Not only do the students have to be coaxed up out of their shell, some of the professors also have to be encouraged (sometimes with a lead pipe) to come out of their Ivory Tower and...well... teach.

We have some professors who are keeping their students involved and participating in their lectures and others just drone on as though they were giving a presentation to a group of people who already know what they're talking about; ignoring any question presented to them because it 'disrupts their flow'.

If your students are unable to learn the material, how can you 'Profess' to be an educator of any kind. I've had my fair share of students who just don't give a damn, but when the ones that are trying don't understand and, more importantly, can't get clarification, there's something wrong.

The job that I was hoping for on campus, apparently has been sucked through the black hole of a budget sheet. Lack of funding. So I will have to find something else to occupy myself. I have been told, several times, that I am appreciated and an asset in the Department. I love working on campus and if I had the choice, I'd continue to work there in other capacities, but that requires that they have the money to pay me.

Ok... fingers really getting cold now. Going to have to shut down and go back inside to the constant drone of 'World of Warcraft' in the guest room.

Ugh.

I wish it was warmer.

-Tom

I needed this

From Myspace:

I haven't checked how my students are reacting to me this term until today. When I looked it up and saw that there was only one posting I was both disappointed (at first) and then relieved. At least the students had more important things to do with their time than to comment about my teaching style.

Then, once I read the comment, I was all warm and fuzzy (at least for 2.5 seconds).

I love my job.

-Tom

Class:
intro to psych

Date:
10/11/2007

Grade:
A

Comments:
Riley is fabulous!!!! He is a teacher and a comedian... but doesn't distract he is great at mixing it up!

Papers and Ink

It's that time of year again. The second week in October should have a note in it to make ink. The walnuts have fallen in suffecient quantity that they're easy to find and it's not too hot outside that you can't boil the bejezus out of the slurry to reduce it down to a good concentration. With fall in the air and the pumpkins ripe, it's time to throw some strange ingredients into a pot, stir with a stick and enjoy the moment.

And that's what I did.

Yesterday, my day off, was spent grading papers for my Intro Psych and Soc classes. It was also the day when I put a pot of walnut ink on to boil. As walnut ink takes at least three hours of simmering to reduce in volume, I try and plan something so that I'm able to watch it fairly easy and stay with it so it doesn't boil dry or froth over in the early stages. The process of making Walnut ink is fairly simple; much more simple than grading intro Psych exams.

Preparation of the Walnuts:

1. Gather non-rotten walnuts, at least half a satchel full.
2. Get a veggy grater from Big Lots - one that you don't mind never using for anything else.
3. Find a rubber / latex glove for at least one hand.
4. I use a shallow, plastic plan to collect the walnut shavings when I grate them. I think this one is a cheap litter pan also from Big Lots.
5. Shred up half of the satchel's load of walnuts if they're small.
   
1. With the drought this year, the walnuts were very tiny.
2. You're looking for about a fourth of a gallon of shredded material.
3. Toss the walnuts (not the hull that you're shaving off) into the woods to 'recycle' them.
4. I use the largest side of the shredder otherwise it gums up too fast.
   
6. Add the shredded hulls to about three-quarters of a gallon of water and let it soak over night.

After the slurry soaked over night, pour it into a large pot over a medium to low fire and stir occasionally.

So while I was watching the slurry cook down, I started grading my papers.



Let me give you some background about the Psychology assignment that I was grading: It's a combination extra-credit assignment and take-home test. My students didn't do so well on their first test so I assigned them to take a copy of the test home and using their notes and text book, answer the questions. It was designed to give the students some free points to help bring their grades up since some didn't have their text books until a week before the test. I assumed that I would get a few mistakes here and there but nothing too terrible since it was OPEN BOOK.

What I got back from my students can only be described as laziness. Most of the students missed between 8 and 9 questions out of a 50 question test. This is technically the second time that they should have reviewed the materials. In my opinion, the students shouldn't miss more than four or five to get full credit and no less than 10 to get any credit. Thankfully, over half of the students who actually turned in the assignment, got partial or full credit. However, I caught two students cheating.

Cheating, on a take-home assignment.

I saw that one of the assignments was poorly photocopied. What makes it worse, is that they student photocopied the test AFTER she wrote her answers. (they were mostly wrong to begin with) The copy had a pen used to poorly cover the original answers in hopes that I wouldn't notice the similarities.

As if.

Once I discovered the cheating, I put the tests down for a second to strain out the shredded hulls from the slurry.

I use a strainer that is just for making ink and remove most of the cooked, shredded hulls. Once I remove the material, I can let it boil down to about one-fifth of its original volume.

So then I went back to my papers and finished up with Psychology. There were no more cheaters found but I wasn't happy with the number of students who just didn't put in the effort to get any points. They're just not getting it. Then later, I worked on Sociology and enjoyed myself a lot more.

I've found that this term, my Sociology class is the 'good' one. They're more willing to discuss the topics, debate the issues and generally come prepared. Psych - not so much.

So now I'll be turning in the students for Academic Dishonesty and sealing up the ink for later use.

-Tom

Be Careful What You Ask For

4:00 p.m. Just back from the gym.

On my way over to the gym to work out I was stopped by some of the department faculty who are building spring term's schedule. They asked me what I wanted to get involved with and I told them that I was happy with Intro courses but if they had something else in mind to let me know. I figured that was the end of the conversation.

I was wrong.

The department is wanting to create a Criminology minor and to do so they're going to start offering a foundation course in Spring. I get to teach it.

My schedule for Spring term looks like this:

Every Tuesday and Thursday

10 - 11:20 Psych 1101
12 - 1:20 Soc 1101
2 - 3:20 Soc 2999 (Criminology)

The good news:

No Monday classes. I'm out by 3:30 and I don't have to be on campus until 9 a.m.

The bad news:

I will have to work out after classes and I will have no breaks in between any of them save to head back to my office for a quick change of books.

It'll be interesting.
-T

A Walk in the Rain

Around 2:30 p.m.

I was not exactly jumping out of bed this morning but I knew that I had to get some work done on my lectures. Rather than trying to fight all the distractions in my home office or the office on campus, I decided to go for a walk over to my favorite watering hole, Hatti Beasly's.

When I crested the hill on 17th street I saw that the gray clouds of a storm were on the march. The air was cool and the weather was perfect for a mile hike. With my IPOD for accompaniment, I didn't notice the many people who were out on their front stoops enjoying the fresh breeze. It wasn't until I got to the shoppe, right around noon, did the storm make the decision to send only wind at us. I was so disappointed.

After grabbing an Iced Cappuccino, I grabbed my favorite perch out in front of the shop and dug into the new Sociology text. I have been reading the text for the past few days to get a sense of what had changed from one edition to the next. The good news is that there weren't that many changes. This left me with the task of thinking about how to run the grades for the class; how many assignments I would have, etc.

Unfortunately, Hatti's closes at 2 p.m. for the afternoon after their lunch rush and doesn't re-open until 6 at night for their coffee and gelatto rush. I did find out that the name, Hatti Beasley, came from the deed of the nearby property that the owner also owns. The owner had always wanted to develop a coffee house and the name stuck with him as great thing for marketing.

Around 2 p.m., I decided to head back since the gray clouds were on the march once more and this time they carried with them the promise of rain. Before I was even half-way home, the cloud artillery opened up and began to pour. Thankfully my bag comes equipped with a mini-brella to protect its contents from moisture.

Now that I'm home and mostly a drip from the hike, it's stopped and the sun has come out to drive back the clouds and guys like me.

Later.
-T

Mmmm is for morning

My current field book, Owl Cup, Cellphone and Bodum Coffee Press

Around 10 a.m.

In twelve days I will be thirty-five years old. In fifteen days, I will be back in the school year. When I woke up this morning, the first thought was: "I need coffee..." My sinuses decided to pretend that it was fall so I woke up half-strangled with nasal gick.

Yesterday was a day for cleaning and organizing the house as well as indulging in a wicked pleasure: World of Warcraft. I didn't think that I would get caught up in it as much as I did but I also realized that after yesterday, I needed to tackle more of my prep-work for classes. I have my syllabi done and the first chapters done, but I want to get ahead. I also need to start my Blackboard files so the students have something that they can download for reviews and such.

So, when I woke up this morning, I grabbed the new Coffee Press and my field book. It's a wonderful combination for the remainder of my "summer break".

Mmmm, French Vanilla.

-Tom

Spring Class Evaluations

Class evaluations are basically how the University grades its part-time faculty. The Dean and the department Chair both see these evaluations before I do. Though student evaluations aren't reason enough to dismiss a faculty member, they do help the administration get a sense of how the students feel about them.

So, when students continually give an instructor praise and such, it helps the administration when they're making choices about what classes to teach and what instructors to use each year.

When I got my reviews back in Winter they were good, but I was reserved in my excitement because I thought that they were just a reaction to a new teaching style and a new face on campus. The students liked me but I didn't look too deeply into it.

However, with this past quarter's reviews - let's just say that I was all happy and fuzzy for about two days after I read my reviews.

When I read one comment from Psychology I actually had to do a double-take. I couldn't believe that someone had wrote this. Under, "What are the main strengths of this Instructor?"
one student wrote:

"Personality - always made the class engaging. Thanks Tom for brightening my bad days! You at least touched one student this quarter. "

Another student wrote, " He keeps everyone on their toes. He also keeps it interesting and doesn't want to see anyone fail like some professors here."

Comments like, "I don't zone out in his class... I really got my money's worth. I would love to have him again." just made me all warm and fuzzy inside.

I am in love with my job.

I don't think I was ever this happy when I was working for CAO. I just never felt appreciated for any level of effort that I was giving them. If I worked 12 hours a day for a week, they would still tend to bitch that someone wasn't putting enough time into their problems.

In academia, I actually have students appreciating the efforts I put forward to help them understand the material better. The decision to get out of Private / N on-Profit and Gov work wasn't easy, but damn is it ever worth it now.

I'm getting in better shape. If you ask anyone of my friends who've seen me lately I'm in a much better mood than I have been in years. Even when things aren't exactly working out financially, like this summer, I'm still in a better 'place' than I was when I was pulling down 30+ K a year and hating my life.

Sometimes the Universe is a nice place to live.

-Tom

Let's call it....Gravel Archaeology

It all began with some buckets and piles and piles of gravel.

Shaolin-monkin aside, the project began as it normally does with my grand father.

"Can you help me haul some gravel?"

The concept of "Some" seems to be a comparative term that is used in reference to the atomic mass of the Milky Way Galaxy.

So, at 8:30 this morning, I went over to my grand dad's for "Father's Day" and quickly realized that 'Some' was going to come and bite me on the ass once more. I should have known that there was SOMEthing up because he asked a similar question last summer and I ended up breaking up 'some' concrete, digging out tree roots, playing with chain saws and then pouring concrete to replace a WHOLE sidewalk.

Each bucket was originally 5 gallons of something. With all the gravel it felt like 50 lbs on average. So, the seven buckets were filled with gravel and loaded into my grand dad's van so that they could be transported to my house. Then, since his van couldn't drive up my driveway, I ended up hauling the buckets up my driveway to fill the trench.

So, each trip was seven buckets of gravel and there were multiple trips. Yes, that's a lot of gravel.

So then, once I had most of the gravel hauled away, it became an issue that there were piles and piles of dead sod from the new drainage ditch that needed to be loaded up in buckets so that they could eventually be ditched over on Hamilton. Once the sod was loaded, I took a rake to the side yard to gather the last of the gravel and loose dirt so that it wouldnj't damage the lawn mower.

So, using a push broom, a rake, a hoe and such the yard was cleaned. Before I was done, I used the hose and the push broom to clean any speck of dirt from the neighbor's driveway in case the new ditch happened to put some dirt there.

And then, I came home.

Ugh.

Thankfully "Grand"-father's day is only once a year. My mother's husband doesn't get squat from me.

Nap time.

Later.

-Tom

Pride: Follow up

Ok,

So I am sitting in my office and working on some journal stuff and I see that I have a new email from M. C.

He had written a 590 word response to the Chair concerning the email I sent to the Dept. Secretary.

Some fragments:

"Over the past sixteen years that I have worked at SSU, it is my understanding that the adjunct's contract does not require the adjunct faculty member to maintain office hours. "

"Further, students have contacted me and continue to contact me before class, during a class break or after class regarding their class attendance and other matters. In the past and in the present, I have received and continue to receive calls from students at my home. It has always been and continues to be my intention to assist the students in any way I can. "

"I would have appreciated it, if Mr. Riley would have directed the e-mail to me as the issue related to one of my students. Had not Sandi forwarded the e-mail to me, I would not have known of Mr. Riley's e-mail. On Wednesday, April 18, I visited my faculty mailboxes and did not receive any written notices regarding any student matters."

He's not slamming me completely, but since I'm the one that raised the question about his unavailability - I'm the focus.

I emailed the chair to remind him that M.C. is the same guy who had 198 voice mails (over 4 years worth) from students trying to get a hold of him.

Heh. I have a feeling that this is going to be interesting.

-Tom

Pride

Get this:

Yesterday, I sent an email to the Dept. Secretary after two students came looking for M. C. (the guy I share the office with who had 198 voice mails). They’re financial aid is at risk of being suspended if they can’t speak with "C" about their attendance in his class.

As Adjunct aren’t required to hold office hours, he apparently doesn’t. I suggested that the students contact him before class as that’s probably the best time to track him down.

My email to the secretary was a note of concern that I had nothing to tell the students and they could lose their Aid between now and the next class.

Well apparently he got an email or some email (I think he got a copy of the email I sent the secretary) and left me a voice mail.

He wants to discuss:

My email
The reason I sent the email
“Certain assumptions” I had made about his activity in the office.

It sounds like he’s cruising for a shouting match.

Ahh, Pride. One of my favorite sins.

-Tom

p.s. Here's the email I sent our Secretary.

Subject: M.C.
Hi,

Two students have come by the office looking for Mr. C; wanting him to email Financial Aid or something. I told them that I don’t believe he holds office hours, but wanted to check with you incase he did change his mind.

I advised the students to seek him out during their class and ask him whatever they needed; but I hate to see them lose their Financial Aid because no one can track down C.

-Tom

Class Evaluations

So I finally got my class evals back from last quarter and WOW - talk about an ego boost.

Here are some of the comments:

1. He is funny and to the point. Teaches Very Clearly.
2. This instructor is one of the best that I have ever had. He is such a smart, witty, and interesting instructor. I've had this course at another college and it is like night and day. He actually teaches the material and involves the class to participate. I will be sad when this is over because it is one of the best courses I've had.
3. He kept my attention.
4. He can make a 101 a little interesting
5. Relates topics well.
6. Knows his stuff.
7. He is very good at putting the subject matter in terms we understand.
8. He keeps the lecture interesting.
9. Good sense of humor teaches very well.
10. He is very interesting to listen to.

So now I'm doing my happy dance - while sick. :)

The only area for me to improve in was that I need to slow down how fast I speak, but that's always been an area to work on.

My Office

Just a quick post with a pic of my office.

Quite small, but plenty large when you consider that I didn't have any office for the first 8 weeks of the first quarter.

Today I had my first student come find me in my office for a make-up test.

Yeah, it was cool. :)

The Day of Finals

Time: 9:18 a.m.
Location: My office
Mood: Half-awake, but feeling good.

While I'm waiting for my Psych final to finish copying, I will take a few minutes to catch up for the past few days.

The last day of classes was Wednesday. I had a few students who scheduled early finals with me because they had scheduling conflicts, either University Athletics or something and one student was leaving for Panama soon for the U.S. Army.

The Reservist was very straight-forward about his request and told me weeks a head of time so there was no problem accomodating him. A few people who had asked me if they could reschedule never emailed me to confirm their request so I'm going to assume that they'll be there this morning. The Atheletes, however, are another story. Early on Friday afternoon, I get an email from her demanding to know where her final exam is and that she's going to be late for a game. Then I get a phone call from the University (our department) saying that she's yelling at them and insisting that they produce the quiz.

The student hadn't spoke to me prior to Friday other than "I might have to take the final early" a week earlier. Since there was no confirmation, I accepted that things had changed or that she had worked them out.

When I got to campus and dropped off the quiz, she was all smiles and appologetic (she was waiting for me) and explained that she was stressed out due to their hectic game schedule. Without getting into her behavior too much, I reminded her that she had not emailed me prior to that morning; a fact that she contested until I told her that I could check my email right there and make sure that I didn't miss anything.

When I got to my department, they were definately wanting to make sure that I had handled that student. She was rude and ingratious to say the least.

So then I began to think: "What if she was lying about the game or even if she was on the team?" She was already taking the test but if I caught her in a lie to that magnitude, I'd drop her grade a letter and write a complaint to her file about academic dishonesty.

Well, that problem eventually worked its way out and I spent the weekend preparing the Soc final and working on some house projects. The only big house project that is scheduled is the construction of a portico in the back yard to shield my car from the weather. It's little more than a roof on beams,but it could also, eventually, be turned into a back patio of sorts if I were to put down a floor (other than gravel) and screen it in.

There are no plans or prints for the basic design yet (which bugs me), but I'm starting to draw them up just so I know what's being built and how. My grandfather, who's helping me build this, doesn't need any blue prints (accurate, but not exactly helpful for those like me who can't build an arc with a pocket knife), but when I started to put things together with measurements and diagrams, he latched onto the idea to see exactly how it was going to come together.

Today is mostly for finals. I'm going to be on campus all day long with little to do other than sit through the tests and grade them. Tomorrow, I have to swing by and pick up some make-ups for those students who had scheduling problems today and that's about it.

Once the weather warms up I'll start to dig the holes for the support-posts in the back yard.

Oh well, it's 20-till so I'll end this and start to get myself together to walk to the quiz.

-Tom

From the office

Hi,

Just got my PDA sync'd with the computer in the new office and thought that I'd post a small update.

Today is the last class of the term and Monday is the final.

I should have a picture posted of the new office soon. I would do it now but there's no card reader on this computer.

-Tom.

My Second

10:21 a.m.

Yesterday was not a great day.

Yesterday I found out that I lost a student; my second.

Monday evening, about three hours after my Sociology test, a young student crashed his motorcycle into a telephone pole out in Adams County.

During the test, he was distracted and unable to focus. For almost an hour he continually glanced around the room, played with his hair and shuffled in his chair until he finally had enough answers on the page to turn it in.

He had come to me previously asking for some assistance and I referred him to student services for tutoring and to learn better study skills but he didn't seem exactly thrilled at the idea.

He left around 3 p.m. in a huff; aggravated with himself about his performance. I asked him if he wanted to talk, but he just left and told me to "leave him alone".

When I got an email from a student, one of his friends, telling me of his death I didn't believe it. I thought that this was some kind of lame-ass attempt to cover for him if he was going to be absent from the rest of the class. Immediately I began to dig and found out that she was telling the truth.

"Stunned" was the only thing I could use to describe how I felt.

Man killed in crash on Ohio 348

OSHP seeks motorcycle crash witness

I went through the regular day on Wednesday and tried to find out more answers and alerted the University just to be sure. I tried to blog, but didn't know what to say.

On a hunch, I thought that I'd look through myspace.com to see if the student had a page and it turned out that he did.

Sean

The most odd thing was to see the number of posts on his Myspace page from his friends who were sending him a message as though he had moved away.

Academia is what I want to do with my life. I've lost two students so far. One to violence and one to an accident. I have a feeling that they will not be the only ones I will lose.