well, this happened

Update: shortly after 10 pm, Canvas came back. I IMMEDIATELY downloaded my gradebooks onto my personal (home) laptop and then e-mailed copies to my campus address. So now I'm safe even if the jerkos take it down again; literally every other document I had on there I have a copy of on my hard drive on my office computer. 

 

Gonna take a bit for me to calm down enough to sleep though 

 

 

 I managed to get eight samples sorted today; that leaves sixteen. I'm not sure I'll be able to finish them in time, still, and eight is.....it's a lot. I'm mentally fried.

 But also from something else.

Taking a break midafternoon and checking bluesky, one of my mutuals sent me a screenshot of a ransomware page that someone ELSE posted showing up instead of their (student) Canvas page. She asked if my campus got hit. I said "I don't think so, I entered final exam grades like an hour ago, but let me check"

 

Uh oh. A "we are down for routine management" page (which is in fact a lie)  but at least it wasn't the (pretty clearly to me) phishing attempt page (which said something like "click here and enter your credentials to unlock Canvas") that the person screenshotted.

 

But. I had not downloaded my most recent gradebook; I think midterms is the most recent one I have. Yes, yes, I know you need to do that but I have SO MUCH to remember and so much to do that I forgot. I'm not sure how I recover from this if Instructure can't bring it back - I don't think my campus has cloud backups. So I'm stuck if it doesn't come back. Grades are due Tuesday - I was planning to submit them Monday, and while I remember what everyone in my smallest class earned, I don't for my other two classes. In some cases, I'm pretty sure - I remember who earned As and I remember a D and an F student (someone who quit showing up mid February). But actually reconstructing a gradebook would be difficult, especially since I've handed back papers and exams.

Best I can do, I think, if I have to, is go on "vibes" based off the midterms and my memory of recent performance, and hope if I give too low of a grade to anyone they can successfully grieve it (=kept their old papers I handed back)

So, that, on top of being tired from all the soil sorting, I kind of want to scream. 

I'm STILL going to the yarn sop in Farmersville tomorrow. I will run into campus first (I can't really leave here much before 10; the shop doesn't open until 11) and hope that Canvas came back so I can download my gradebooks. 

But I guess - MORE COGNITIVE LOAD, YAY - I have to set myself reminders from now until I retire to down load it every two weeks incase some jerkos decide to try to extort either the tech company (Instructure) or thousands of students (with the phishing page) again.

 

We really ARE a scam-based economy in large part now; being honest feels like you're just waiting to be a victim, but God help me, I cannot do otherwise.