I've run into several interesting situations in this class. Most notably would be Laura Norris. I think that was her name. Anyways, the girl was older than me and had some messed up problems. I'm not sure when it started but she would write me emails at 2 am detailing how her grandmother peed on the couch that day and she took her mom to the hospital. Then 2:10 am she'd write another long email about why her grandmother peed on the couch. It was an endless slew of emails.
The best part was the email following set of emails. Mind you that my responses were slim at this point.
Email 1 - 10/15 @ 5:13 pm:
Good afternoon, Mr. Weber. I think, I want some drugs. The nap did not help. I felt okay for the first 10 min, then I guess, I forgot myself and then felt allot of pain. So, I went to cost on Monday, and was looking at my watch every ten minutes. Upon, further thought, I'm not going to lay down on the floor, in front of people, to come to class. I'd rather lay on floor here on the heating pad, with the dog.
You are just doing chapter 5 slides?
have a blessed night
Laura Anne
Email 2 10/15 @ 7:40pm:
thank you. Oh I forgot, my BP was too high, and she did increase the medicine. But I've been having tingling in my fingers, and some other problems, with my hands, not the usual RA stuff, so I thought may be it was pre cursers to having a stroke, because of, what all the ER doctors said. I had been diagnosed in 2009 with RA, and already had one hand surgery from it. But along with the degeneration of the bones in my lumbar, I have bone degeneration in my hands, another form of arthritis. There are 3 different kinds of nodes, this other arthritis leaves on your hands and you can feel them. I have two kinds of these nodes. All I know, when it rains, it pours. And I'm only 44, then I was told this happens to people in their early thirties, so I was lucky. And I still don't have any cancer, or any cancer scares, like 5/8 of my family have had or died from, I don't smoke, and I keep trying to plug along, so I should "be happy, things could be worse".
I told my mom about the other arthritis, and she plops her hand down, and in between where her thumb ends and her hand starts, is this big knob looking thing, bigger than a knuckle, the third kind of node of this other arthritis. But she's had 3 scares with cancer, radiation and other things. So, I should consider myself lucky. She has COPD, she can not ever be operated on for any of this stuff. I've been operated on once, already, and once I lose weight, I get my bone metal fusion surgery, there's probably another hand surgery (bone metal fusion) that I can probably get, to fix this other arthritis and replace whatever pieces of bone are missing in my hands. I see the arthritis doctor, the beginning of next month. So, I guess, I will start that process, like I had to with my hand in 2009, and like I'm doing with my back, to get to that surgery.
All I can say is , I'M ONLY 44, NOT 104, WTF... And when it rains buckets, the buckets hit you face.
If I withdraw, my great aunt and uncle will, not pay for me to take the classes again, and thus, will not pay for me to finish school. I was told to suck it up and deal with it. They are both from tobacco grower families, of which, I don't know what pain is, like their families did. His father broke his hip, he carved out a crutch/cane, from wood and still continued to farm, until he broke the other hip. So I don't know what pain is. They didn't have all the drugs, to manage pain, like they do today. And I am not to miss anymore classes, if I'm in there and crying from pain, then I need to deal with it. They both have back issues. Of which my aunt gets a 6inch bottle of oxy filled at Kroger's every month, for her back pain. That's a lot of pills. They are only offering to pay for school now. If I withdraw, the offer is resended. And the hits, keep rolling.
The lady who comes from Home Instead, is here to take care of my grandma. She is trying to figure out a way to rig the double back/lumbar brace. I need to where it at all times, to keep me from injuring myself further. So that is the only good thing to happen, with me, today. My double back brace is wearable, and will be my second skin. So that's something.
Trying to figure this mess out and to make myself able to do, what I need to.
going to bed.
Now you are up to date. And yes, I know this is the exact opposite of a business letter. Please do not exercise the thing in your syllabus against me, for not writing business like.
Tomorrow is a new day and I have the internet and my own brain, and there is a way to manage this, and I will find it, tomorrow.
good night
Email 3 - 10/21 @ 12:40 pm:
Yes, sir, I will be there. In my double back brace with extra shirt, thermacare, fan, whatever I need to get through, if I need to sit on the floor with my back against a wall, to have my legs flat, then fine, I will, let Mr. Europeon man make fun of me. I will do whatever, however, to get through, to listen, ask questions, and participate in class.
thank you
As you can see, this lady was a bit of a nut. All of this took place in the Fall of 2014. In the Spring I had a student want to meet with me after class. We talked in the common area at one of the tables. Her grade for the year was somewhere in the low 30's. She proceeded to tell me that she would do whatever she needed to pass the class. She was an exchange student and the embassy was going to send her back home if she did not graduate by May of 2016. They would make her repay roughly $100K. We talked about switching majors but she said she had already done that 2 times and the embassy would not let her do that. I think she had 1 of 2 options. She could drop out of the program. Or she could try again over the summer. Her excuse for summer school was that she was Muslim and had a period of fasting. If she was not eating then she wouldn't do well. I'm sorry but if you don't want to pay a bunch of money then her religious ceremonies might have to be put on hold. Its part of life. She took Intermediate with me in the summer and barely passed. I'm sure she isn't doing well in Intermediate 2.
Summer 2015 wasn't too bad. The one big thing was before class when some students where having an ethical conversation. Someone brought up the stories of employees committing suicide because of how intense work was in India. Well some girl came in and sat down. The conversation hadn't stopped as class had not started. She quickly packed back up and said walked out saying she couldn't handle it. Her brother had just committed suicide. Wow! What do you do?
Fall of 2015 wasn't too entertaining until the end of the semester. One of my students came by my office to ask me to change his grade. He had a 77 and wanted an 88. How on earth was I to move someone 3 points? He wanted to go back and look over exam 2 and challenge any items he disagreed with. He proceeded to tell me that I had recently changed grades for exam 2 for someone else. It would only be fair that I change his grade as well. I mean I'm offering students advantages that he was not getting. For that matter, he wanted to go back and evaluate exam 1. He didn't do the best on the final and that's why he was putting up such a stink. There were a couple of things that I made confusing but they were doable. Those couple of items threw him off and he spent a majority of his time focusing on those items. He still didn't get those right. I went back to test 2 and gave me a few points just to get him to shut up. I knew it wasn't going to change his grade enough to move him 3 points. Things got awkward when he told me there was a committee that would evaluate each question and potentially change his grade. He brought it up several times and I kept telling him that it was right to do so. However, I'm the one that controls if I give you extra points. After a way too long of conversation he stormed off leaving the impression he was going to take me to some exam evaluation committee. About 4 hours later he came back to let me know he was not going to submit his grade to the committee. What a crazy couple of hours.
Intermediate exams have been rough on me. I don't know why but I have not had a perfect exam to date. I don't know why I keep making errors. Even when I think I've got a perfect product, come test time I find several mistakes. I make 3 new exams for every class. One of my students this semester questioned why I do so. Its not like kids are going to remember the names of companies or dollar amounts.
Ok. Michaela really wants me to come play. Next post we can look at 662 or 307.
