The End of the Term

The term ended Friday. Hallelujah. The last week of the term is not my favorite. Beyond having to enter a million grades (my least favorite task in teaching), I have to deal with certain students:

It is common to have students come in the last week asking, "I have a 'D+' but I need an 'A', is there anything that I can do?" Yep. Go back in time, come to class on a regular basis and turn in your work.

Even worse are the students who I have met a grand total of twice and I don't know who they are when they come in. They come in after school, right as I'm supposed to leave for tennis practice and have the following conversation with me:

Student: Hi Miss Roberts
Me: It's actually "Robertson". Who are you?
Student: I'm in your A1 class
Me: Oh, you're So-and-so. I didn't know you existed. Where have you been?
Student: My life's crazy right now
Me: That's too bad. What can I do for you?
Student: I need to pass your class
Me: Oh really, why didn't you figure out what you had to do at the beginning of the semester?
Student: I'm sorry. I just really need to pass your class or I won't graduate.
Me: My class wasn't designed to be a week-long crash course in government. Nor do I just have packets to hand out with all of the information. I don't really know what to tell you.
Student: Isn't there anything I can do?
Me: Well, I guess you can do this worksheet, all the info is in the book. Get started with that and then we'll see what we can do.

Something close to this conversation really did happen this week (I did recognize the kid though; that was just for dramatic effect). I haven't seen the kid since. And the sad thing is, it's not the first time I've had a similar conversation. It boggles my mind that any kid can really expect to pass a class without even going to it.

Other students turn something in two months late and then hound me because I haven't entered the score yet. "But Miss Robertson, I turned it in two days ago and you still haven't put it in the computer!" I usually tell them that if they turn in something on their own time, I'll grade it on my own time. That usually quiets them.

On the other hand, I've had a few students who have solid A's that come to me with concerns about an assignment that they didn't get 100% on. I usually tell them to calm down.

I can't identify very well with the aforementioned students, but the type of student that I do understand is the one that has like five assignments that they turn in and say, "I found these in my backpack. Can I still turn them in?" I'm usually a little more patient with them, which leads to piles of late work to grade. So yeah, that's what I've been doing this week.

An Announcement

Amazing

photo here

5k in California

Over Christmas break, my sister-in-law Sarah was talking about how she had a list of 30 things she wanted to do before she turned 30. One of them was to run a 5k. I decided that I need to be more fit, so I would start running again and run it with her. I found one that took place over Presidents' Day weekend and signed us up. Unfortunately, I didn't really start running again. But I ran it anyway. And I didn't die.

It was a really fun race. It rained and hailed, which I thought added to the excitement. I was soaking wet by the time I got in, but I was feeling good.

Sarah (who was running sick) came in right after me, so here Christian is getting his camera ready. He handed me my nephew Blaine, and you can see how much he liked that.

My niece Anna made us signs to cheer us on.

My biggest fan once again showed up to support me :)

And here is the pic of the sisters-in-law. I'm so glad I took the trip out (even though it was a quick one). My family is the best. Seriously.

Homecoming

Yesterday I was cramming the final pieces of information on Latin America into the brains of my geography class when one of my students stopped me and told me that someone was at my door. As I walked out the door, I saw a woman with a man in a military uniform. She told me that her son was in my class and unbeknownst to him, his dad had returned form Iraq. I invited them in. Any description I could give for the look on that boy's face wouldn't suffice. It was some combination of puzzlement, excitement and joy. His mom had tears in her eyes, as did I and other members of the class. I dismissed him those two minutes early so he could enjoy the two weeks he gets before his dad has to go back. It was beautiful.

BYU v. Utah

The big game is tomorrow, so I wore my fancy shoes to school. My student wore his. We took a picture with my iPod.

How to Get Published on ESPN.com and Two Free All-Sport Passes...

...when it's the last thing in the world that you want.

1. Write a letter to the editor that gets published in the Daily Universe calling the BYU community to repentance for worshiping Jimmer.

2. Leave your Facebook account for ANYONE to comment (uhhh, why on earth would you do this?).

3. Have somebody on Cougarboard find the letter.

4. Watch the comments fly in (warning: some comments are irreverent).

5. Have the story go viral.

6. Become a notable resident of your hometown on its Wikipedia page.

7. Get offered BYU All-Sport Passes so you too can become a heathen idol worshipper.

(You can see a nice story about the guy in the previous video here. Go to 10:55 in the episode.)

Snow

From all of the blog entries/Facebook updates I have read, it seems like Utah is the only place that hasn't been having snow days. All we have had lately is extremely low temperatures (Provo was -7 with wind chill last week). I'm telling you, at this point in the school year I could definitely use a snow day.

In my excitement for better weather, I did order myself a new tennis bag. Isn't it lovely?

Unfortunately, my UPS tracking app says it's stuck somewhere in Illinois enjoying a snow day.

Adventures in Teaching

A couple of happenings at school today:

All of the Ute fans in my B2 government class secretly proclaimed today Ute pride day. They are quite aware of my love of Jimmer and all things BYU, so they proudly wore their University of Utah t-shirts to tease me. I asked them if they were celebrating their loss to UNLV last night and left it at that. Pretty funny kids.

A student in my current issues class told me that he was going to take on the persona of Karl Marx for the duration my class. He told me that he wanted to be called Karl (not his real name, though it does start with a K), and I started to call him Karl Marx, so he ran with it. He made arguments in favor of socialized medicine, trying to tell me that the medical innovation that the Nazis developed in their inhumane treatment of Jews far surpassed anything that the market could produce. I kindly reminded him that Hitler was not a communist. He took time to editorialize that he wasn't actually a Marxist, but he would act like one in my class. When asked what he really was, he said he was an anarchist. To further establish my intellectual dominance, I asked him if he was an anarcho-capitalist or an anarcho-syndicalist. That one stumped him. He claimed that he had read the Wikipedia article on anarcho-syndicalism, but couldn't remember what it was. All the other kids in the class think he is a genius and ask him to use smaller words. He's a pretty bright kid, and to his credit, he had the curiosity to write down what I said so he could go look it up. It's going to be a fun class.

Jimmer Love

Last year I posted a couple of times about my Jimmer obsession. Last night I went to the BYU-SDSU game, and let me tell you, my adoration of Jimmer has only gotten stronger. And the rest of the country has apparently caught Jimmer fever. It's so much fun for me. I'm just savoring it, because a player this amazing only comes around once in maybe, oh, 30 years. If you haven't had a chance to watch him, you should, even if you're not necessarily a basketball fan. Here's a little taste of what I saw last night:

And this was the scene after the game. Can you even imagine what he must have been feeling?