200 students can bring you down

I am once again spending every waking minute on my class. They have an essay due on Thursday that is worth 16% of their grade. Don't ask why it is 16% instead of 15 or 20. They are slightly panicked about it. I would imagine that students are going to office hours of the GSIs, but they are also e-mailing me all of the time.

Further, my GSI who is posting the homework assignments doesn't get anyone else to look at the questions, so each week we have a bunch of issues with the homework. So, I have to respond to 20 questions that are all exactly the same.

Then, I am preparing some lectures that I didn't do last semester, so I am spending many hours doing that.

A few students want to come talk to me about their failing grades ("Here is why I haven't done any homework - can you pass me???") I don't want to have these conversations. I need to be a dick, and I am not a dick. Actually, I have to remember that these students have done it to themselves, so I am not being a dick giving them the grade that they have earned. Yeah - keep telling yourself this.

Needless to say, I am getting burned out on class stuff.

Ok, bitchy-bitch time is over. I have to go teach.