Two more exams

 halfway through exam week, though really less than halfway, because today's exam was machine-graded, which is easy, and tomorrow's are both partly-essay exams that will take longer.

I'm already tired. I've been doing the dance of make-ups, because I had people having to isolate at the last minute - so several people missed the last hourly exam. Fortunately all but one have been officially cleared now to return, so they'll be getting that caught up between my other exams tomorrow. 

I wrote two of my three syllabi for spring today. Holy cow, my brain wasn't working well last spring when I wrote them, typos everywhere and one kept referencing things from the fall semester. I did have to go through and change a lot of other things, though, because policies have also changed. (Like: we had a mask mandate last spring). 

I really don't know what's going to happen and I noted that in my syllabi - that things would change, that these were written in early December 2021. I will say my worst concerns up to now have not come to pass: we did not have to go all online in Fall 2020 (except for the "planned" going-online after Thanksgiving) or spring 2021 (except for about a week of snow days) or this fall. So maybe it will be okay? Thought I admit I'm anxious about the new variant given our relatively low vaccination rate and the fact that many of the students commute or work in diverse settings. So I expect I'll still have to do SOME teaching over Zoom, though I am *not* offering it as a blanket accommodation where just anyone can choose to do it, because it's a worse way to teach (I cannot devote enough effort to the different ways you need to teach fully online vs fully in person, and I am better and, and prefer, in person)

I've also been dealing with some minor grade-grubbing or "but I don't think you counted xyz" (when I actually did and the student is letting hope triumph over reality) and that's kind of tiring. I mean, I guess in a way it's a "nature is healing!" thing that people are doing that, but that's one part of teaching I didn't miss. 

There were a lot of other things I missed. We were talking in a meeting (about one class several of us teach) about how we used to do a "five days feast of finger foods" for finals week, and of course last year we did not do that (all online) and this year we didn't because it still seemed unwise and....yeah...it's the little things like that that have gone away and that I miss out of all proportion to how big they were. Things that made getting out of bed seem more worth it somehow, the little joys that lightened the drudgery or the dreariness. 

Maybe next year we'll do it. (We also noted there had been no potlucks, and in fact, there have not been any as long as my newest colleague has been here. And that's also sad; it was a nice way to do faculty meeting, to make the doing-business part of it nicer). 

Also a couple people have mostly/totally been teaching online due to health concerns; I miss seeing them - we've lost a lot of the little casual interaction we once had (also in the classroom, everyone seems kind of subdued or inhibited, and of course my brain is nerfed by having to do the dance of setting up the camera and making everything else technological work). And I don't think I can ever again discount how important those tiny little interpersonal interactions are - hearing about a students' weekend, or having a colleague tell a joke they thought you'd find funny. 

The rest of this week will be grading, and finishing up the syllabi, and cleaning my office a bit for spring. Graduation is Saturday but for once, I am NOT going. There was a sign up - they didn't want to require people to be there but wanted at least one representative from each faculty. This summer there was a graduation and I went - but it was outdoors, we still had a mask mandate, and if I remember rightly, that was AFTER my initial vaccinations. But I am not comfortable being in a basketball arena, in winter, with literal thousands of other people from all over, and I have no idea if they're asking people to mask up or not (and of course, if people choose to take them off, what can anyone do?). I travel on Tuesday and I have to affirm to Amtrak I don't have COVID and haven't been exposed, so I am doing my best from here on out NOT to be exposed - will be masking and staying distant on campus, will mask in church, and won't go anywhere between now and then. 

Saturday is also the last Zoom knitting for the year for me, so I will get to see people at THAT and I would rather do that, frankly, than go to graduation - no one I know well is graduating, it's loud and long and too warm, and especially now I'd be uncomfortable the whole time. 

Also I need to do laundry and probably clean house a little before leaving on Tuesday.