sadness

my syllabus states that i don't accept late work. papers are turned in at 5 on mondays. the program that receives submitted papers has software that will not permit assignments to be turned in at 5:01.

yet i have three students who have not turned their papers in. it's clearly after the deadline, but i haven't even heard a set of desperate pleas via email.

part of me is very sad that these three students will get zero points for the paper. the rest of me wants to make sure there's nothing absolutely horrific going on in their lives that would prevent their turning in the assignment, like apts on fire, dead family members, car crashes, etc.

i suppose i'll wait and see if they are in class tomorrow. and then kindly remind them of the drop date, should they wish to withdraw. yikes.

actually, i'm a bit upset with my students in general about right now. see, last time we all met for class, the whole class was on giant cough. yawns are contagious, but so is coughing. apparently. it was like they were coughing the wave all around the classroom/stadium. i've had this sore throat i was fighting for about two weeks now, and i've been through two cartons of orange juice and so much vitamin c i'm surprised i'm not orange myself. yet last night the coughing began, and all of today i've been hacking and wheezing. to the point where i'm out of breath after a fit.

those little coughing bastards. how dare they infect their teacher?

ah well. the 30 to 1 ratio of germs doesn't change as the students get older.

love and coughing peace