Monday, November 03, 2008

RBOC to move down that last post...

I have this perpetual feeling of being late this morning because of switching back to standard time. I'm not complaining about getting that hour back that I lost in the spring, but it's so disruptive to do this twice a year. 

I can feel the semester starting to wind down- although we still have about six weeks left. One of my classes will be pretty much run by the students starting next week, but that still needs to get organized and none of them seem to be willing to schedule meetings with me to finalize things. 

I'm so excited for the election tomorrow and am cautiously optimistic that Obama will win. I am obsessed with the electoral maps on several sites and keep looking at the math to see if things could go the other way. I sure hope not- I used to think that McCain would be such an improvement over Bush, but with his VP pick, the prospects of him winning send chills down my spine. yikes.

I really need to do another post about my RA. All along, I have kept thinking that I am being too harsh in my judgment and that maybe s/he is OK after all. However, I keep getting emails from him/her that remind me that I am right about my impressions. Check out this email I got last night:
I would like to inform you that I may not manage to do a lot on the [task you gave me] this week. I have major asingments due almost every day this week, including [your class] exam. Please bear with me (for this week) as I will ensure to catch up with it next week.
Bear with me? As if s/he has been working hard all semester and this is the first time that RA work has been neglected? I'm so irritated. I sent a response about budgeting time and how everyone is expected to put in their hours- even if they have classwork to do. Am I too mean?

On that note, I better finish getting ready to head to campus. I may have to stop at Starbucks on the way in- I'll need a soy latte to fill me up until after my hour-later class today.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the major assignments and the exams need to come first. How can they possibly be a good RA if they fail out? If this person is in his or her first year, maybe a conversation about time management in grad school is in order but I do think it's reasonable to let new students take some time to spin up.

Addy N. said...

I haven't blogged all the details, but this student is not doing his/her work in ANYTHING- last week, s/he said that s/he wouldn't have time to finish another RA task, because of another assignment being due. S/he is doing all coursework at the last minute and turning things in late, but also not putting in RA hours. I'm curious to know what s/he has been doing all semester. I am all for giving people a chance to get settled- and have given this particular student plenty of time and flexibility to do so, but if s/he can't get his/her sh*t together by week 10, maybe s/he should not even be in grad school.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm with you--I'd be annoyed about the RA thing!