I am probably cancelling class tomorrow. I don't really particularly care how much that throws us off schedule, I can catch up some other time.One of my students in that class got me sick. I knew it was coming last Thursday, but starting yesterday I've just completely felt like death. My sinuses are so swollen shut that I cannot sleep for more than an hour at a time, and I am literally in the worst mood I've been in since I started working here. Oh yes, and sometimes? When I sneeze? I pass finger sized blot clots from my nostrils. I'm pretty sure my students will pass on having to see that.
The doctor says this is a virus and offered me a decongestant. The "good" decongestant unfortunately makes me vomit so I'm on a cut rate one that I could probably buy over the counter. A week from now I should be okay.
Anyway.
I am cancelling not because I can't teach through this crud, but because if I have to sit next to that student I may strangle him. It's a strange classroom set up where if I want to demonstrate something on the computer I sit between two students in a circle of computers. In a pinch, it works, but it's a really really strange place to lecture from.
So this student came in with this cold. During class he proceeded to turn away from the student on his other side and sneeze, cough, etc. ALL OVER ME. Even after I asked him to stop. If I hadn't asked him to go home I have no doubt he would have continued.
Repeat for two more class periods.
"Oh I'm feeling much better!" And then he'd turn to be polite and cough directly on me.
I have to meet with the Dean this week. I have a major assignment to grade. I have a meeting to run tonight. I am not prepared for any of it because my sinuses are trying to eat my face.
And so, for his safety, there is probably no class tomorrow. Bastard. He's actually one of the best students at the course material, so his actual death would do me no real favors. *sigh*
I'm sorry you're sick, and I hope you get well soon, but why don't you have Strelnikov deal with your student? The Soviets had a germ warfare program, just like we did.
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you know that tomorrow (Monday, 2/20) is a national holiday?
A national what now? Not at my U.
DeleteSo sorry you're sick. We don't have tomorrow off, either, and I'd say your canceling class would be for the betterment of the whole class and the school... and the city in which you live, and the whole country. Clearly, its level of contagion is chronic, and you're saving humanity by staying home.
ReplyDeleteOK, this is just getting surreal - now the side-bar advertisement is for barf bags. Cal, how much are we making from the ads again? I don't really have to click through do I?
ReplyDeleteMLP, get well soon - so we can go back to sidebar ads for lesbian porn.
To all. If the ads don't interest you, just ignore them. Many folks use Firefox AdBlock and never see them.
ReplyDeleteOur expenses are very light - in fact Cal paid our fees for a domain name (a private one at that) this year, and profits from the TINY amount of ad revenue goes to the Red Cross. It's pennies a day.
Some moderators use the ad space for the occasional inside joke, but at other times they are created by your own searches. For example, I bought the new Van Halen CD recently and my sidebar ads are full of topic-appropriate ads, including an ad for the CD itself that I've never seen on the site.
Sometimes ads are geared toward content in the posts; other times they're matches to something you have searched for, and - apparently - have interest in.
We get a fair amount of mail telling us we're assholes for running the ads.
Our response. We're assholes anyway. What else do you have?
Hi RGM, No complaint about the ads - they really don't bother me at all (not even enough to turn on adblocker). I know full well that they are driven by whatever cues there are on the page or in my search history.
DeleteBut as a result they are sometimes amusing, and occasionally bemusing, and my comment really boiled down to "Holy shit, some Intertoob Adbot 5000 thinks MLP's illness is a business opportunity for the makers of disposable emesis containers! Worse, someone actually programmed it to do that."
Sorry if I seemed to be piling on. And MLP, my hope for your speedy recovery is genuine.
I'm waiting for the ad relating to finger-sized blood clots.
ReplyDelete"I have to meet with the Dean this week. I have a major assignment to grade. I have a meeting to run tonight."
ReplyDeleteOh boo-fucking-hoo. Try being sick and having 3 midterms in 2 days during your last semester. They're the hardest classes you ever have to take and if you fail one you have to disembowel yourself...because there goes your job offer contingent on graduation and there's no point in living if that happens.
So suck it up because your problems are like a papercut...slightly annoying but nothing compared to having your arm cut off.
Oh, yeah? Well she does have a low-life with no manners coughing on her. She should ask him if he kisses his mother with that filthy, germy mouth.
DeleteUmm...you don't really have to disembowel yourself, do you?
Well, I'll have to disagree with both of you. While the sick student lacks manners, he's quite bright in other ways.
DeleteAs for Stock... well.
I've been there. I have. You know what? It sucked.
But it also sucks that students don't think what we have to do is important. That meeting with the Dean I have is about funding for a 100K project that will directly benefit students. While I will no doubt present well, if I get the Dean sick he may not give us the money anyway (yes, he's like that, and no, we can't reschedule). Yes, it's one of many meetings about this project but is significant nonetheless.
The student who turned his head to intentionally cough and sneeze on me rather than the hot chick on the other side of him--well, again, I understand, but it's still a douchey move.
The things I have going on this week are all about my students. That's my job. That's what the State pays me to do. I would continue doing it to the best of my ability whether I lost limbs or got cancer (true story: one of my friends is teaching through chemo) or whatever. We're like that.
Stock, I ask my students to stay home when they have the plague. I send my students home when they come in with the flu. I give them extensions, and yes, make up midterms, especially if I've seen hard evidence of the fact they are sick. This is many of their last terms.
What kind of ass would I be if I DO have class tomorrow and manage to pass this on to many of them right before OUR midterms? Sheesh.
When StockStalker has an actual job, he will look back on his comments here and cringe.
ReplyDelete