light bulb

Okay--how dumb am I? I'm listening to Dr. Phil say the same thing to parents of unruly children that he's said a hundred times, the same thing I've said to Joe myself, and suddenly I realize that the same thing applies to my students. They have to be able to predict the consequences of their actions 100% of the time. And on some things, they can. But on others, I'm too inconsistent. When they talk too much, I ignore it because I'm too busy. And so it continues. When they fail to perform adequately on a task, I gloss over it, especially when the issue is group work. so then they don't take group work seriously. The real problem is my being overextended and underdisciplined.

Today when Jodi was talking about her remarkable turn-around time on grading, I found myself wanting to say, "Yeah, but what else do you have to do?" Her self-righteous, judgmental attitude gets on my last nerve sometimes. She doesn't sponsor anything, she doesn't have children, all she does is teach, for God's sake--i had a much better turn around time on grading too before I started doing a hundred other things.

Great quote: Time to a writer is like play dough in the hands of a toddler. --Barry Lane. I can sure mangle an hour, a day, an evening. Here I am with the perfect opportunity to write and I can't do it. Instead, once again, I'm wasting my time.