Khoury is happy! You read it correctly. He came into my office last night, smiling, and said he is happy! I have known him for over five years & this is the first time I have actually seen & heard him say that he is experiencing this emotion. I was speechless. Thank goodness I was sitting down for that news. K~if you read this~I am so glad you are happy!
And I was okay with my classes & students. They seemed to be on task this semester. And then yesterday hit. In my first class I had one on his laptop screwing around. I instructed him to close it. By the third time I just said "Stay after class & if you open it again, I will make a wish with it". Then, some genius sitting three rows up decides to write him a note and hold it up (for everyone sitting between them to see) about the "girl on the other side of the room who is on her labtop". I asked him "What are you doing?". The response? "Oh, I had to tell him something." (choking/stuttering sound here)..."You had to what?" "Well, I had to tell him something & didn't want to interrupt the lecture." Genius, isn't that what you did anyway by holding up a stupid note? So I tell him to stay afer as well. "Why?" is what this einstein asks me. "You'll find out after class" is my response. So, then the note-writer gets up and makes a production of crumbling the note to go and throw it out. I growl "Sit down and flatten that note out". "Why?" I forgot that I was teaching five-year olds. "You'll find out when you stay after."
Then I get to teach my afternoon class. There are 18 present. Only one is participating. I instruct them to close their books and take out a piece of paper. They are to write a 7-10 sentence summary of the essay that had been assigned for homework. How many were able to do this task? One. That's right. One student was able to write a summary of the essay. The other seventeen wrote an explanation as to why they hadn't read it.
My first evening class was just as tragic. I found two students plagiarized their projects off of a website on the internet. Many others did not write the minimum required amount. And still others had at least 20 grammatical errors on the first page of the project alone. What class is this, you ask? Critical Thinking. So, as you can tell, a majority of that class will fail the semester. I went in there raging. I even used the "b" word--which I despise. I berated them for thinking I am stupid and wouldn't be able to find their ripped-off work on the internet. Then I pointed out that I have heard some of them try to suck up in class yet call me that "b" wod in the hall. I reminded them that they are only fooling themselves & it is pretty pathetic that I care more about their grades than they do. I also pointed out that I have graduated and do not need the class, yet some of them will not graduate because of their lack of effort in this class. Oh well. The Briar reality has fully set in. How many days until May 5th?
