SPRINTING AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER

Well, it's hard to believe I haven't posted in over three days, but then it's hard to believe the hours I'm keeping in the last three weeks of school. It's supposed to be the unpressured, post-state test time where the biggest cloud on the horizon is the handful of seniors in danger of not walking at graduation.

But, no, I have a class I have to take and it's really been stressing me out....because I'm used to really sprinting toward the end of the school year and pushing my students to excel on project-based learning, to get as many on the plus side of the ledger as possible. But that's just not in the cards this year, because I absolutely have to take a Monday-Thursday evening class which starts less than 30 minutes after I get off work, on the other side of town. The only sprinting I'll be doing is from the parking lot to the Education Building at CSU Fresno around 4:10 every day.

To make matters worse, the book wasn't available right away (par for the course for college bookstores, in my experience, grrrrrr) and the web-based learning aspect of the course wasn't up and running for anyone taking this course through extension learning, like myself, so it's been a mad dash to just get the materials and the paperwork handled. In fact, I was getting so disgusted I was considering taking the equivalent course later this summer through University of San Diego's Fresno extension program, but my colleagues talked me out of it. They pointed out that it would be best, given my October deadline, not to monkey around with multiple transcripts and just to bear down and get the thing out of the way.

I appreciated their wise counsel, and on Wednesday evening (third night of the course) I finally seem to be settling in. I just wish that bastard PZ Mytzlplk wouldn't brag about seeking recreation with his genetics tests all but in the books....