Continuation of the I Hate Mondays

I am so sick and tired of students bitching about their workloads this time of the semester. "OMG I have, like, three five-page papers I've got to write! I don't know why they give us so much work to do." Ah fuck you.

Sorry. I know it sounds harsh but unless you've sat at the other side of the desk, you have no clue how hard it is for the teachers. Trust me, the less work we give you, the easier it is for us. Therefore, if we give work, it's not because we're are sadistically evil (masochistic, maybe, but not sadistic). We actually care about you learning something.

Anywho...can you tell what kind of day I've had?

This time of the semester is crazy for everybody. So to give you all an idea of what live is like for teachers at this time of year, here is another day in the life. This is actually a continuation of yesterday since it was such an oh so classic day.

• 6:00am - Get up and get ready. More like dragging than actually getting up.
  
• 6:50am - Leave for school, hoping to get in early enough to get today's lesson preps done on time.
• 7:15am - Pull into the Pathmark shopping center. Realized I forgot to put on makeup when I left the house this morning and since it was charred into my head as a child "you don't go out without makeup" I was forced to purchase some at the supermarket. Bad makeup that is rather expensive. Joy.
• 8:15am - Arrive at school, sit down and start working on today's lesson preps.
• 8:30am - The fire alarm goes off. Since my office is on the third floor, I am forced to hobble down three flights of stairs with my air cast and cane.
• 8:45am - Watch firetrucks show up at the college and then leave.
• 9:00am - Let back into the building. Try to take the elevator back up to the third floor. It breaks down in between floors. I'm stuck in a tiny, cramped elevator for ten minutes. Did I mention I'm claustrophobic?
• 9:10am - Elevator finally starts moving and we're brought to the basement level. I walk across the entire building to get to the other elevator to discover it is broken. I am forced to take the stairs up to my office. Four...fucking...flights.
• 9:20am - Sit at my desk and proceed to whack my good knee into the desk.
• 9:21am - Finally get back to lesson preps.
• 10:30am - Deal with all the OMG I Can't Get My Paper Done On Time e-mails. I get at least five a day this time of year. All sorts of emergencies including grandparents dying, parents in the hospital, or car accidents. It really is amazing how all this stuff only occurs in the last three weeks of the semester. I'm also amazed at how many grandparents one student can have.
• 11:00am - Attempt to teach students. At this point in the semester, I have to pull out all of my tricks to keep them awake. I realize they are all burned out and tired so I actually make an attempt to be entertaining. Do they appreciate it? What do you think?
• 12:20pm - Grab a pre-made sandwich down at the cafeteria and then run to my desk to finish up last minute lesson preps and go over even more OMG e-mails.
• 12:30pm - Finally receive a phone call from Dr. K's office to schedule an appointment to discuss the MRI for my foot. Proceed to spend a half hour trying to find a time sometime in the next month when they can schedule me without me missing class.
• 1:00pm - Back to lesson preps.
  
• 1:40pm - See 11am times two.
• 4:30pm - Sit down at my desk and deal with more OMG e-mails and the I Have Missed All The Assignments This Semester But Can I Still Hand Them In And Get Credit? requests
• 4:50pm - Finally write out my proposal for the head of the department regarding his pet project.
• 5:15pm - First of a line of students walk in my office with many excuses and reasons why they should have absences marked as "excused" (what the heck is an "excused" absence anyways? An absence is an absence) and some who come in crying because their parents kicked them out of the house and they don't have any place to stay so they can't write their paper (but they are meticulously dressed and were talking with their boyfriends on their cell phone in the hallway about the party they are going to on Friday).
• 6:00pm - Close and lock the office door and turn off most of the lights so the students think I went home. This way I can finally get some grading done.
• 6:45pm - Realize that most of my students are incapable of writing a coherent sentence. Sigh very loudly and then continue on with grading.
• 8:30pm - Leave the office.
• 9:00pm - Have the MRI done of my foot.
• 9:40pm - Finally can head home.
• 10:45pm - Stop at MickeyD's to pick up some dinner (it's the only place open that late).
• 11:00pm - Arrive at home and eat dinner.
• 11:45pm - Finally get to sleep.

And people wonder why I look like hell today. The worst part? Take out the firedrill and the MRI and today was exactly the same thing. It will be this way for the next three weeks. Ugh.