Third Day

My supervisor at Akron decreed that we must meet with every student at midterm to give out grades (because the University software, after three years of trying, still can't figure out how to deliver midterm grades). I must say I wasn't looking forward to it. Seventy-five ten-minute conferences. And I made things more difficult by telling myself that I'd grade all the papers from last Thursday before meeting the students.

Today is the third day of conferences, and I don't quite know what to expect. The clueless woman who never gets assignments right and says it's my fault will be there. So will a couple of people who simply write D papers.

Yesterday I met

• One student who obviously has such anxiety that he simply cannot submit anything. He trembled throughout the whole interview.
• A student who is apparently learning-disabled and never diagnosed. When you read her stuff, you can't really figure out what she's trying to say.
  
• A student who works as a paramedic and has been out of class because she was accidentally jabbed with a needle infected with HIV. She's having a bad reaction to her medications.
• A student who apparently spent the first few weeks of the semester drunk, but is now getting his act together.

For the record, I also met with at least half a dozen very bright, gifted students who write beautifully and are a pleasure to read. It all went so well that I'm thinking of returning every paper this way.