Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Snow snow snow

It's been threatening to do it for days now, and as I was walking home from dinner last night big fluffy white flakes came floating down. This morning I awoke to a light dusting of snow and very gray skies. *sigh* I can't begin to explain the joy and sadness this brings all at the same time. The snow is beautiful, but I feel so incredibly disconnected from everything familiar right now. Christmas is almost here, and none of it feels real. New Year's is next week, and I have no plans for the first time in years. I'm seriously going to miss my boys being at my house for New Year's this year... no party... boooooo! I've got a small case of Holiday-itis, I suppose.

I'm terribly worried about one group of my students. I only have them one day a week as it it, which most people know that is not enough for learning a language. They are my lowest level students, and really need the extra time. However, since the semester started late, we only had ten weeks to work with. In the last month, we've had 3 holidays on Mondays, cutting them down to seven weeks. Then I find out yesterday that the next two Mondays are also holidays, which means they get 8 hours of instruction and I'm supposed to give them a final exam and a grade. This just doesn't seem right. I've scheduled three make-up classes, but from past experience it seems that no one comes to these. I hope for their sake they decide it's worth it. It's really up to them at this point. I hope next semester will turn out a little better. I definitely won't schedule any classes on Mondays again. What a mess.

Well, I've got 16 essays to grade and last minute shopping for the party tomorrow to do. More later.

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