Spring Semester Blues

I need to write this quickly, because I've got about five minutes before my Midrin (migraine meds) kicks in and obliterates my mental faculties.  

This weather and the flu epidemic have wreaked havoc on every vestige of structure I have for my classes.  Thursday, only six students showed up, and Friday wasn't much better.  As it's rather difficult to have a successful round of workshopping with so few people present, I ended up having them journal, assigned extra credit to those who bothered to appear, and rescheduled our organized chaos for this upcoming week.  It's a little frustrating.

Also, I'm finally starting to get to where I can work around my headaches.  I'm so far behind on grading that I think I'm about to lose my mind.  I just can't really pretend to find joy in reading textual analyses when my brain's messages resemble television snow.  Thanks to new medication, I'm starting to get to where I can think through the fuzz, but I've got a lot of catching up to do, and all it's doing is making me think longingly of break.  

I do feel encouraged, though, by the majority of the final drafts I've read so far... it seems my more structured instructions (summarize, respond, outline, formulate an intellectual judgment, then write) have really helped this batch of students get the hang of the textual analysis.  In fact, all I've read at this point understood the basic concept, and we're really at the point where we need to focus on polishing and expanding presentation.  After beating my head against a wall repeatedly last semester, it's a relief to know that I'm pretty much over that bump.  

And... there go my smarts.  The drugs kicked in.