I’ve loaned out my office to a colleague whose own office is closed for asbestos remediation, but it’s been kind of a blessing, as I’ve discovered I really like working between classes in the East Terrace in Student Center East.
There are these comfy chairs that look onto a view of lovely trees and the city beyond, which is much nicer than the arrow-slit window view in my office. (It’s not a bad view, but you have to get right up next to the glass to appreciate it because of all the Brutalist concrete between the slivers of glass.)
This is the point of the semester where I’m running around like a mama bird, trying to catch all the baby birds who are falling out of the nest. “Dear student, you don’t appear to have handed in the major paper that was just due — were you planning to hand it in?”
It’s surprising, but those e-mails actually do get some of the students to write a paper and hand it in…I’m not sure if it’s guilt at letting me down or just feeling like some adult actually cares whether they do their work, but whatever the reason, I’ll take it. (I, of course, teach small seminar classes, usually 15-25 students — I’m sure this approach wouldn’t be feasible for a 300-person science lecture class…)
