Not a Student in Sight!

This was captured late afternoon as I walked back from the main campus office building where I get my college mail and where I can make photocopies or drop off requests for copies to be made.

This is looking toward my office -- the one that I had to vacate from February till 14 days ago when the email arrived that we could get back inside even though the construction fencing wasn't quite removed -- so as I walked back to gather my stuff and head for home, I had enough sense to pull my camera from my pocket and shoot . . . not a good photo, but better than no photo.

The heat has just been ferious. In the 3-digits for a few days, but slowly dropping some. So all students were somewhere in an air conditioned building or they had already gone home and the evening students had not yet arrived.

I met my first group of students today. I had 45 people show-up for a class that tops out at 30. The room has 32 seats. While everyone was very polite, it was a sad, discouraging moment for many. I did add eight students to my roster and hoped I would not have nightmares when the reality approaches me of what I had done . I do know that many students "drop" after a few days when they get a taste of the work required to develop their writing skills into quality communication.

Overall, though, after two hours and five minutes of mostly talking "at them," I came away very encouraged that they all seemed responsive and positive. I did explain that if they wouldn't purchase their textbooks this first week and bring them to class next week, I will drop them. A lot of book work is assigned in the first couple of weeks and for several years now I have had students who lag behind because of "money issues" and don't get their books. Then they get considerably behind in the course work and eventually they can't get caught-up. I explained that none of them would buy a car and park it in their garage or driveway because they could not afford gasoline. So, they've paid for enrollment into college, and now they need to get the textbooks and supplies that will increase their potential to succeed. I'm so mean!

So this first Tuesday of the semester was good.

Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol