This is my life?
The semester is winding down. I am looking forward to my week off prior to teaching the Maymester. I don’t know why they call it the Maymester since most of it is in June.
The student culture at BRCC is really frustrating. I have students who just stop showing up to class. They don’t withdraw. They just stop showing up. Of course, this means they will earn an F in class. I cannot imagine why someone would do this to their record. The only thing I can think of is to keep financial aid. But if your GPA drops below a certain grade, you lose your financial aid anyway. I think the students don’t think in terms of the long run. They think in terms of “the now.” It also coincides with high absenteeism in the class. I have tried to compensate for high absenteeism by taking points off final grades for each absence. That has failed miserably. Half my students are losing letter grades because of their absences. In addition, students come to class on speech days without their speeches. It is not uncommon for some students to be unprepared three class days in a row, thereby losing three letter grades on their speeches. I have tried to compensate for that by giving bonus points to students who come to see me with their outlines before the speeches are due. Of course, only the A students and some of the high B students show up for that. It is a frustrating culture to teach. Now that I am looking over the final grades for the students (all but final exams), I’m just depressed.
In other news, I watched Susperia the other day, which is a 70s horror movie by a guy named Dario Argento. It is considered to be a classic. It is the first part of a trilogy called “Three Mothers” 30 years in the making. I have the second part from Netflix sitting at home. According to Rolling Stone, part three will be released this summer amidst all the big budget summer movies. The film is very strange and -very- 70s. The special effects are not very good, but the setting is very vivid. I’m not that into horror films, but this one was fun to watch.
Willow is graduating this month. I’m excited for her, but I’m dreading the trip. Moving her out of the dorm is going to be a big pain in the ass. She’s decided she will stay with us for the summer and go to California after we return from our annual beach house stay in Florida in August. It will be nice to have her around for some borrowed time.
My life is consumed by grading right now. These are the days when I find the job at BRCC difficult. Usually it’s a breeze, with low stress and low demands. Still it’s less demanding than most other jobs, so I really shouldn’t complain.
Some more threes:
Three movies I want to see:
1. Speed Racer
2. Mother of Tears
3. Indiana Jones
Three movies I’ve just seen:
1. Baby Mama
2. Iron Man
3. Deception
Three great speeches I heard this week:
1. Mechanical Exoskeletons (informative)
2. Littering (it was very well done)
3. Supporting NASA
Three gratitudes:
1. Power bars (for the protein and good taste)
2. Netflix
3. LSMSA
Suspiria is one of my favorites. The soundtrack is super-creepy, and the dance instructor, super scary (she’s in the sequel and supposed to be in the third flick too).
Argento is FAB!