Well, another class is in full swing.

We started on Wednesday and it feels like this one could mimic the last. Although, it may be worse.

Last term, I had a student who insisted to be called her free name instead of her slave name. Her slave name is what was listed in the grade book and given to her by her mother. I didn’t probe into it, but I never had a student before who had a slave name as her legal name. Actually, I hadn’t had one who had a slave name at all.

One student proclaimed to live out of an unregistered, uninsured, and unlicensed truck. How she turned in her assignments, I have no idea. But, she was only late once.

Multiple students had Covid. Coupled with computer issues and their children working from home, I had to be very flexible with the due dates and had to have a lot of patience.

Still, despite all of that, the overall feeling of the class was good. The assignments were generally well-thought. Some were actually well-written. Those who failed did so because they simply didn’t participate.

For this class, we’re still in the first week. There’s an assignment that is supposed to get the students to start exploring their final paper. It’s just a five-paragraph affair. I’m not expecting much. A couple of sentences per prompt would be fine.

Four of these assignments have come in so far. (They’re due on Saturday.) They have all been piss poor save one. But, I’m not sure if the topic is appropriate for the paper. The submitted assignments lack organization, complete sentences, and a couple has wandered into tangentland.

The topic should be something that can be compared/contrasted. Easy enough. It’s the old Coke V. Pepsi debate. Instead, I’ve received topics about how secondhand smoke can affect babies and the highly generalized ‘human services career.’ I didn’t turn them down as this is just Week 1 and didn’t want to bring down the ban hammer so soundly right away. Rather, I *** strongly *** caution them that the topics can’t possibly have a viable opposing point.

For example, the student wants to write about secondhand smoke and its effects. Naturally, the opposing point would be that secondhand smoke is great, promotes long life, and is a cure for cancer.

I seriously doubt that the student will be able to find credible support for this assertion. However, with my lack of faith in authoritative sources, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an article supporting babies breathing in secondhand cigarette smoke in the Journal of New England Medicine.

So, maybe this class is full of absolute idiots.
I don’t know, but they can’t be any worse than the Biden administration.

—->>> It actually snowed today.
I got to see snow for the first time in years. Cold, but beautiful.

I hope the truck door hasn’t frozen and I can get my butt to the gym tomorrow. =)
I’ve been going to the gym a lot over the past week and have even resurrected waking at 6 to get to the gym by 7.

I’ve been playing Pikmin Bloom when on the treadmill and have been averaging a level to a level and a half a day. I know it’s seriously going to ramp up and I won’t be able to do that in the future. But, for the moment, it helps me make sure I 100% my walking goal each day. That and some of the music is fairly tranqil.

…. silly and beautiful snow.