Friday, December 18, 2009

"Lazy" days, swimming & being a T.A.


Well, I have to admit that I feel a little lazy not having to go to school and teach and not having anything to work on - but I've been keeping "busy", just not important busy. I watched some episodes of the office on dvd and I went to the gym a couple of times (but couldn't do too much with my sore and cronic hamstring injury) and I made nice dinners for Travis, but I haven't felt like cleaning or doing laundry. But we're celebrating Christmas together tonight, so I am excited for that and I will have the laundry done and folded and the house cleaned up for that! I have an awesome surprise for Travis! And he got my gift last night, and I have no clue what it is.


Oh, and of course there's the "crisis" situation at school with students and their grades. I cannot believe how many students write in to complain about their grades, after I give them free points on the exam and try my hardest to help them get the highest possible grade with practice writing and listening in the class. My frat boy, the one that always tries to flirt his way to an 'A', just really gets on my nerves and wanted his grade changed from a B+ to an A-, but I couldn't justify giving him the extra 1.5% and so I didn't, which of course started a long chain of emails with me feeling guilty for no reason at all. I'm telling you there's a lot of not so fun junk that goes along with grading and teaching, which you never fully understand until you're there. And since I really don't put up with whining and I have pretty high expectations of people, I really don't like emails petitioning for higher grades. But my main reasoning is that I gave them several free points on exam questions I didn't agree with, I graded very easily on orals and written compositions because in the end, grades are not an end all be all. And if someone did try and did participate and came in for help, I would change their grade. But for a flirty frat boy that tries to "woo" me... pienso que NO.


Otherwise, weather here is great, Travis is really enjoying his job and he is working out like crazy and loving it. His new obsession is beginnertriathlete.com where he can log all of his runs and work outs. So I will be going to the gym this morning and engaging in some hardcore pool running. And swimming. But I think ever since college swimming, I will be burned out forever. I need to get over my negative swimming attitude b/c I think that it will help me to recover faster - it's a great cross-training activity. The picture up top is of the Ford tempe ironman we went to this year, which inspired Travis to sign up for next year. Lots of swimmers there and I was hoping it would inspire me to go and put my suit on now...

No comments:

Post a Comment