What to wear, what to wear

I made a choice when I started adjuncting 2-3 years ago: I was going to dress up for work.

This profession has always seemed disjointed in terms of a dress code. I have seen professors in full suits and I have seen professors in sweats, with most falling in between. At the community college I adjunct at, most people seem to wear business casual separates, but I do always see a professor who has a basic uniform of white tennis shoes, light jeans, and a sweatshirt. Would I ever wear that to work? For many reasons, no. Does he still seem somehow authoritative in it? For some reason, yes.

However, that certain professor is quite a bit older than me. I am still mistaken for a student, so I thought that dressing professionally would be a good way to differentiate myself from the student body. I also realized that I need to wear clothes that I can easily move in, walk around in, breath in, and not feel self-conscious in while in front of 25 pairs of eyes.  I once had a film professor who wore giant bracelets that would chime together and then echo throughout the room over her microphone.  With that annoying sound in my mind, I am pretty diligent about the functionality of my clothes.  My work wardrobe includes dress pants, skirts, dresses, vests, button-down shirts, silk blouses, sweaters, casual cotton shirts, boots, heels, and dressy flats. I think I look nice without looking stuffy.

I'm still looking for the pink pants, but I think I have the HOYVIN-GLAVIN voice down

On my way to class one late morning, I stopped by the drugstore. The lady who was waiting on me flicked her eyes on me and then said, "Don't tell me you're a teacher."

I assumed she thought I was an elementary school teacher, but no matter. I told her I was and asked how she knew.

"Oh, just the way you're dressed. You look exactly like a teacher."

I glanced down. I was wearing brown dress pants and a green cardigan. Okay, maybe a little teacherly, but nothing I wouldn't wear at any other job. I smiled at the woman and left, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I don't think I want to look like a teacher. What does a teacher look like, anyways? What do professors look like?

If only we could all rock the three-piece suit as well as Professor Jones

A few weeks later, the weather was nice enough for me to wear an outfit I really like. It consists of a beautiful silk skirt and a light cotton white shirt. I met my mom on the way to class and as I got out of my car, she exclaimed, "Wow! You are really dressed up." She kept saying that: "You are really dressed up!" I started to get a little concerned, but at the end she told me she really liked the outfit. Hell, I really liked it too and it felt nice.

Flash forward 30 minutes: I'm in my classroom preparing for class and in walks this student, let's call him Ron. Ron is a jokester and I think that he thinks we have some sort of joking relationship. Anyways, he walks in and says, "Wow, that is one ugly shirt."

I was shocked and taken back.

The next week it was my hair. Ron walks in the classroom, looks at me, and says, "Bad hair day?"

A week or so later as he was leaving class, Ron glanced back back at me and said, "I like your skirt, Mrs. EA." I didn't hear him so I just said "Okay." He repeated, "No, really. I like your skirt."

Ugh. "You don't have to comment on my clothes every day," I snapped back. 

That seemed to shut him up and he never said anything about my appearance again.

Anyone who makes another comment about my appearance can shut the hell up. 

Reading over this, I realized I have a lot of stories about students being incredibly inappropriate.  Eh, it was a bad semester. 

One Last Inappropriate Email to End the Semester

Here it goes:

Hi Mrs. EA, I just want to say thanks again for working with me throughout the semester. I had a lot of fun in your class and always looked forward to it. I would like to return the favor and take you out for some [specific food] sometime. No strings attached, I know you're married. I just want to show you a good time. My number is XXX.

Yikes.

I received this email right before I left on my vacation, so I have yet to respond.  To be honest, I have no idea what would be the proper thing to do.  My initial instinct is to ignore it.  Just let it linger in my email trash and forget this awkward thing ever happened.  Then I thought, no, that's childish.  Be an adult and respond!  I thought maybe I should write back something like, "No thank you.  You doing well in your next class will be good enough for me!" or something kind of nice like that.  Then I talked to another educator friend and she said I should write back that the invitation is completely inappropriate and to refrain from making such requests in the future.   

Anyways, I was away from my email for eight days and no new creepy messages were waiting for me.  Can I just let it go or do I have to address it?

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

We're back from our European vacation to Germany and Spain!  We visited a friend there and had a lovely, awesome, great, I-don't-want-to-go-back-home time.  It was a short trip, but I'm tired all the same.  I now need a vacation after the vacation.

Here are some pictures!

 

And finally, a book we found in the garbage.  Apparently, it wasn't working out.

Say No to Volcanic Ash

...because we're going on vacation today! Europe, here we come!

Am I a Soft Grader?

The other day I ran into a student who I had for freshman composition last semester, Smiley (the kid smiled a ton). At the beginning of the class, Smiley wasn't a great student but wasn't a terrible student either. S/he did not do too well on his/her first essay and when I went over the essay with them, I realized it was because Smiley had the very common problem of trying to write an essay in half an hour. Smiley could easily pick out his/her mistakes in the paper, but admitted that s/he was in a hurry and wasn't thinking at the time.

I allowed Smiley to redo the paper. A small university is located very near to us, and has many more resources than our community college. Smiley went to the writing center there for some help and it showed. When s/he turned in the paper, it wasn't perfect, but it was much better. S/he continued to struggle a little throughout the semester, but through a lot of hard work, also improved.

Anyways, I saw Smiley, who is now in the second semester of freshman composition. I asked how that class was going, and s/he groaned: "Hard."

"Really?"
"Yeah, it's really, really hard. I'm trying to get a B-, but I have like a C now."
"Well, what's so hard about it?"
"Everything!"
"What are you doing in that class?"
"Lots of research papers, and he doesn't let us redo any papers!"

I said goodbye to Smiley and immediately felt guilty. Why wasn't Smiley more prepared for this class? Was I too easy? Is it because of me that Smiley, and maybe many more of my students, are not ready for the second semester of composition?

Somewhere, it might have been Inside Higher Ed, had an article or comments or something (end of semester = my brain is fried) saying that adjuncts are more likely to give in to grade inflation. I am so paranoid about my grading standards. I have never had any teaching instruction and very little guidance from professors at the community college. The article/comments/something mentioned that adjuncts grade so generously because they don't want to lose their jobs. I think I snickered when I read that. My employer is very anti-grade inflation; every semester an email comes around stressing the importance of fair grading with statistics about the grades that were given out last semester. The email always says something like, "70% of students received A's; did 70% students deserve A's?"

I'm always concerned that the powers that be will look at the grades I assign and think, "This EA-she's giving too high of grades. We must fire her."

Smiley received a B in my class and I really do think that was a fair grade. Maybe it makes sense that a B would equal a struggling C/B- in a harder class. Then again, maybe not because that would mean that as the student progressed to harder and harder classes, s/he would earn lower and lower grades.

Either way, this semester both classes I'm teaching are pass/fail classes. Actually, grades are due today so away I go.

The Last Week Email Blues

A run-down on the desperate last week emails I've been getting.

It started with quite a simple email from a student I haven't seen in weeks:

Hi it's lowercasefirst lowercasesecond can u please drop me from the class

Class ends this week. I received this email over the weekend and, like I said, haven't seen this student in weeks. Now, I don't care that s/he wants to drop the class. S/he should. However, the school has a very late drop date for students and s/he could have easily dropped by that date. Also, this is the email you send to ask your English instructor a favor? You send an email with no punctuation, your name in lowercase letters, and a frickin' text message "u"?

Ugh. Moving on...

Their final essay was due last Monday. I had one student turn the paper in, via email, on the following Thursday. The email that went along with the essay?

Yeah I know it's really late, but don't try to minus too much points now lol :)

I was pretty shocked when I read this email because I had been, or so I thought, quite stern with this student when I realized s/he didn't turn in his/her paper. Apparently, it was all a joke that I wasn't in on.

To continue with the inappropriate emoticons, this email came from another student in that same class:

Hi Mrs. EA, it's your favorite student in the world lowercasefirst lowercaselast. I'd like to thank you for helping me this semester. I'm honestly not a slacker but, ok, let me be honest, I am ;-). I was just wondering if u could tell me were I stand in the class right now. Thanks in advance.

Seriously? That is really how you want to address your instructor? You are aware that I decide if you pass or fail this class, right? I haven't turned in the grades yet, so this might not be the best email to be sending to me right now.

All these emails boil down to a simple formality that is obviously absent from the relationship between me and my students. This is probably my fault. I like our classes to feel laid back, so I do have a tendency to joke around and try to put out a friendly vibe. But when things don't go too well, I always thought I was strict and I expect respect.

It makes me think about my relationship with my professors. I am opposite end of these emails-waaay opposite. It takes me about half an hour to draft an email to the professor, carefully planning the salutations and polite yet non-stuffy wording. I would never, ever, nevereverever, write such a "hey, wazzup?!" email to a professor or anyone I was in a professional relationship with. Many of my students just do not treat school professionally and so I get emails with winky faces. Awesome.