Professorizing...

So many posts in a one day span. That should cover us for six months or so!

A new quarter just started for me, and I am teaching a class now that a number of my students from last quarter are taking. Apparently, I helped them catch up on their sleep, so they've signed up for this class as well. I actually got along really well with these students, including one student who was very upset with me on the first day of class this quarter. She had had trouble emailing me the written portion of her final project, and I never got it from her. So, her grade could have been in the B range but ended up being in the C range. This is the conversation I had with her about that:

Her: Mr. Alley, I'm very upset with you and your email?
Me: Oh? It wasn't my email's fault. I just never got your paper.
Her: I sent it like six times. I'm so angry with your yahoo account.
Me: I just never got it. I'm really sorr... Wait...What? Yahoo? I don't use a yahoo email account with students
Her: I sent it over and over to jalley at a yahoo account
Me: Nope. That's not me. I only use my school email.
Her: Then who the hell was that?! I was emailing them things all quarter, and they kept responding telling me I'm a good student and "Nice work"!
Me: ***just laughing
Her: Well, I guess I'm not mad at you anymore.

and... Scene___________________________________________

Here's another fun one. I've already told many of you this story. Last quarter I had to sit down with the Dean to go over my student reviews--where my students fill out a scantron rating my performance. Things were going well as we were reading over the comments on the back of the sheets where students can actually write things in. They were saying nice things like: "Mr. Alley made a class I dreaded taking into a good one." or "I loved this class!" Very nice things. And then the Dean comes to one and she can't make out the writing very well, so she reads, "Thanks for keeping your..." And she asks me to finish cause she can't make the rest out. So I start reading it, "Thanks for keeping your...clothes on!"

So, then of course, the Dean is a little concerned about why my students have to thank me for keeping my clothes on. I had to think about it for a minute, and then I remembered that during that quarter there was a professor at another school in the Atlanta area who had gotten naked in front of his class. So, it had been big news and we had even talked about it in class. But then I remembered, I had dug my own grave because while I was passing out the scantrons, I said to the students: "I'm not supposed to bias you in any way while you are filling these out to try and get you to give me good reviews, but just remember I'm not that one professor and I've never gotten naked in class!"

Luckily the Dean had a good laugh about it. And I'm sure she has started a special file on me. But I still have a job!

Anyhow, we're enjoying life in Atlanta and professorizing is the best!