Happy OctoberCheck!

Yay, it's the OctoberCheck holiday!  For those of us paid on a nine month schedule, this is a feast day, a day to get grocery shopping done, buy things we've been putting off, and, yes, start saving for taxes, gift season, and the next summer's pay-drought.


This comp class is beating me up.

We're supposed to have students turn in things using an electronic drop box thingy.  They're supposed to turn in all their biggish assignments with it.

Today, my students turned in the second assignment that's supposed to be electronically submitted (and hardcopy, too).  And still, the drop box thingy isn't up.

I spent half an hour last week trying to get it to work, then asked one of the big shots, and zie couldn't get it to work, either.  Zie suggested I ask the other big shot, but that person wasn't around, and then I got busy with my THREE plus hours of meetings. 

I tried again this morning with no luck.  I sent an email to the big shots.

And finally, this afternoon, I ran into the second person, and zie said that it wasn't working, but that there was a meeting later this week, and it should be working soon.  (And then zie offered to come teach me how to use it, as if I'm a techno-idiot because I'm stupid enough to ask for help getting in the system when there's  no way in.)

We're in our fifth week;  that's about one third of the way through the semester.  And this thing isn't working.  And there's no communication about it unless I ask, and ask again.

It's hard enough to teach a new class based a lot on someone else's plan.  But it's even harder when the stuff we're required to use doesn't work yet.  (And I know it's not the big shots' faults, really, but rather the tech folks on campus who are supposed to make sure these things work; and I know that by next semester, things should be in place.  But it adds to the stress when you've told students something is supposed to work, and then no one can access it.)


And now I get to prep Macbeth, and all will be fun.  I'm doing another library series (I've done several of these over the years) at the local library starting later this week, and there are 17 people signed up.  The librarian in charge emailed me to let me know that they'd had to change the room because the usual place wasn't big enough.

Taking over the world for Shakespeare!