It's Saturday morning and I've gotten the first full eight hours sleep in a row I've seen in a long time. As soon as the coffee gets done brewing, I'm going to be a moderately happy camper.
(short break to load the dish washer and actually MAKE the coffee I'm waiting for ...... sigh.....)
This week, in the life of one instructor....
Food drive: My stack is large, the students stack is tiny. I have faith they will pull something out of the hat by Monday, but my faith is shaky. My faith in them, my faith in myself to motivate them.... shaken. We shall see.
Either way the rescue is getting a truckload of food. I expect to double the stack my students saw as they left Friday, and it's already big enough to need a forklift on moving day. Moving day is next Tuesday....
I got drafted to sit in a room with tie wearing critters for an entire morning 'working' on something called a 'mission statement'. In the room were two instructors, three principles, a director, a support admin puke, some weird lady from God knows where, some guy from industry who looks like he wears his tie during sex, and one fairly sharp individual called in to run the meeting. I guess we didn't have anyone as good as him on the payroll.
The old mission statement was a 41 word run-on sentence with a meaning no one could determine. Can you guess who counted the words and announced it? Can you guess who asked if anyone in the room could explain what it meant? Can you guess who was making friends at warp speed.... amongst the people who determine my future employment status? Can you guess who got ordered to come to the NEXT meeting on re-writing the 'vision statement'? SON of a BITCH! The final draft of our new mission statement has 11 words, included therein is my class three word motto. 'Commitment to excellence'. There was blood on them there toes, let me tell you........ The guy running the meeting shook my hand and said he would be calling me, and one of the principles looked like he swallowed a lump of Amish exhaust.
I have the unhappy job of dealing with a student who probably won't make it, based on ability. He's a sweet heart of a kid, but he's slow. The thing is... his goals are different than everyone else's. He would be quite happy just learning about cars and graduating. Problem... we have a high pressure course and graduation is going to be an issue for him. Nice kid and he's slogging along, but I don't know what the future holds for him.
ANOTHER one though.... he's flat out failing. Why? He's allergic to work.
Nothing more complicated than that... he doesn't care about what we teach, and he wants nothing more than to drift around and screw with other people.
His goal is to make his way to tomorrow without doing anything that requires effort. Lie, cheat, lie some more... whatever it takes to make it to tomorrow
effortlessly. Kid should make a FINE politician. You pick which side of the aisle.
Faced with failing out the year, and also faced with our practice of getting all interested parties in the same room where lies just don't work anymore, he has come up with a new idea. He's working hard to aggravate the other students till someone takes a pop at him. Then he gets to say he was forced out for his safety rather than failing out from stupid laziness. It ain't gonna work junior.
On another note.... one of my personal vehicles took a major bowel movement.
The clown van lost a trans. This provided an opportunity......... and a danger.
Opportunity: I can ask a team of students to work on it. In our class universe, that's a rare honor. In instructor universe, it's a great chance to build up a students self confidence and skill base. I need to pick a team that's up to it, ahead on their other work enough, and will stick with it when it gets tough.
Danger: If they fail, they may nose dive in class. Therefor, they cannot fail... period. Further danger.... I may lose large bucks on the repair if note done correctly. The transmission is a rare beast and only one could be found within driving distance. $700 parts my cost..... and no other like it around.
I picked a team of four. Two excellent, one decent, and one who could be good when he thinks clearer and gains confidence. I hope it's a good mix, as I can't hover with the group. There are 40+ others students to work with and these will be mostly working on their own. They will do well I think.
Now, a photo of my beloved as the world sees her:
And another as she so often appears to me:
Time for more coffee..... have a good morning friends!
