Catching Up: Things Your Tutor Would Like You to Do (College Edition)

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I just finished Summer Quarter, and this is my list of things I’d really like students to start doing.

[+] Please read your syllabus/course documents. Seriously, read them. Your instructor is listing out a lot of information that you need to know in those, and they’re putting the time in to create those documents.

[+] If you have a question about your instructor’s expectations for the assignment that is not covered in the instructions, please email your instructor. I feel like I need to make a recording of me saying this because I honestly don’t know what your instructor wants if it’s not an instructor that I have had before. They’re willing to answer your email, so talk to them. Also… stop asking me five versions of the same question and getting cross with me when I reply with the words “asked and answered.”

[+] Stop complaining when your instructor deducts points for things listed in their syllabus or things they have told you to fix multiple times. You know what I said about reading your course documents? I meant it. If your instructor told you that assignments need to be double-spaced and in 12 pt. Georgia font, they’re not kidding. If your instructor tells you that you need to write out dialogue, listen to them. If I remind you to do those things, stop complaining about me making more work for you. Your instructor is within their rights to deduct points if they’ve stated the requirements or given you that feedback.

[+] Stop taking free extensions from instructors unless you need them. Extensions are an emergency thing, not something to depend upon. There is an instructor at the college who consistently gives his students extension after extension for non-emergency reasons… and it cuts into the time they have to do the next set of work. I’ve had to tell my students not to take the extensions because it creates a snowball effect in terms of not being able to meet deadlines and needing more extensions. I’ve had to do things like set guideposts on dates that they need to get assignments done so that those extensions are no longer necessary. So please, STOP TAKING THOSE EXTENSIONS UNLESS YOU HAVE AN EMERGENCY.

[+] Please, I beg you, STOP PROCRASTINATING. Procrastination on your part does not equal an emergency on mine. I’m totally happy to help you figure out a schedule to get things done and avoid having to do too much on one day, but I can’t help you if you’re going to slack off and save everything until the day before it’s due.

[+] Please at least look at your classes’ Canvas sites before we meet. Ideally, you should at least attempt your homework before you see me, but I can deal with you coming without doing that if you’re stuck on being able to start. However, please at least KNOW what your assignment is so that I can help you. When you come and haven’t even looked at what you have due, it makes it really hard to help you because your instructor may have not given me access to that Canvas page.

Catching Up: August 19, 2022 Edition

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It’s been hard to have something to write about because I’m literally working, watching YouTube, and sleeping.

[+] Kiddo had an ADHD appointment last week. He is now 5’3″ and has doubled his weight since his g-tube surgery 4 years ago. Unfortunately, he is really constipated, so life is full of suppositories and Miralax.

[+] Next week is finals week, and I’m actually looking forward to it. It’s been a bit of an intense summer, and I’m kind of burned out. Interpersonal Communication is a tiring class to tutor, and I’ve got three sections of it on my tutoring roster. None of the instructors teach it the same way either. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m having to answer every question with the words “I don’t know. Email your instructor.”

Catching Up: August 7, 2022 Edition

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It’s 12:39 a.m. on August 7th, and I have very little to tell you about my life because I’m eating, drinking, working with students, watching too much YouTube, and not sleeping near enough. All the student stuff is kinda sorta protected by FERPA (and I’m not feeling like getting into the Come to Jesus conversations I’m having to have with a few of them), so here is the stuff I’ve been watching for the last week or so on YouTube. There’s A LOT of them, so I’m putting a cut in this post. Click on “Continue reading” to see the whole shebang. (And yes, I have a weird YouTube algorithm.)

Continue reading →

Catching Up: July 29, 2022 Edition

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TGIF…

[+] This week, I discovered Steel Magnificat, the blog of Mary Pezzulo. I had seen friends link up stories from her blog before, but I wish I had taken the time to read her blog before now. She is an amazing writer and an even more incredible person.

[+] We’re having a church picnic at a member’s farm on the 7th, and I spent this week arranging to *NOT* have to figure out how to put worship online that Sunday. I’ve been out there before and the part of the farm we’ll be at is kinda primitive. I would probably have to record worship and upload it later… and I don’t have the space on my phone to record a 90-minute service. Broadcasting it off of my laptop would require really dedicated Internet access, and I really don’t think they have it in that part of the property. Also… I haven’t had a service off from running things and doing Zoom (we’re talking Sundays, Holy Week, and funerals) since April 25, 2021. I think I (and everyone else on the committee who switches around from Sunday to Sunday) can use a Sunday off.

[+] Daniel had an ADHD appointment scheduled for Wednesday morning at 8. My alarm didn’t go off and Daniel woke me up at 8:22. I called them apologetically and rescheduled it. They were cold to me on the phone, and I don’t blame them one bit because I know how much of a headache it is from working in a clinic when people are no-shows.

[+] One of my new guilty pleasures is Code Blue Cam. It is videos from police body cams, and it’s interesting to see the job from that perspective. I am not an ACAB person by any stretch (as I have relatives in law enforcement), and I am absolutely in favor of police having body cams that are not allowed to be turned off. (A lot of jurisdictions have civil and criminal penalties for officers who do so.) The department that seems to have the majority of videos right now is the La Crosse Police Department, and one fo the things that surprised me is that they have to put their guns in a lockbox when they head into the station.

Catching Up: July 23, 2022 Edition

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Oh mercy…

[+] I’ve been asked how people can pray for me job-wise, and the best way currently is to pray for clarity because there is still a lot of vagueness about what will happen.

[+] I’ve heard ALLLLLLL about “beaver nuggets” from my Texan friends and Emily of Snake Discovery is obsessed with Buc-ee’s, so I found a site where you can order food from them and ordered myself some of their gummy bears and some beaver nuggets. The gummy bears were forgettable, but the beaver nuggets are brown sugar covered pieces of puffed cornmeal that are ADDICTIVE. However, the owners of Buc-ee’s are huge supporters of Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz, so I won’t be ordering any more of their food… at least, I won’t order any more of it without making a donation to Beto.

[+] My schedule for the summer is still in flux, and I got four new students this week. I’m doing LOTS of Interpersonal Communication classes, Business Math, Business Computers, an Ethnic Studies class, and a Sociology class.

Catching Up: July 8, 2022

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Oh boy…

[+] I got the news a week ago that my job was being made temporary because of new legislation that was passed that puts it in a new category. I need to look into it more, but I might be job-hunting in the next year or so. There’s lots that is up in the air right now, so please pray that I can figure out what needs to happen. I’ve known that this was coming at some point for the last two years, so I’m glad that I at least have a timeline now?

[+] The quarter started this week. I worked less than I expected, but that will probably change next week.

[+] I’m watching “Intervention” right now, and this episode is about a family that all hooked on fentanyl. It’s hideous stuff, and I’m starting to see some addiction mannerisms in the people on the show that I’ve seen in people I know. I lost a cousin 11 years ago to drug-induced mental health issues, I tutor classes in Human Services that deal with addictions (I have more than a few students who are current or former addicts), and it’s giving me insight into someone at church whose behavior toward me has been incredibly dysfunctional. (I suspect alcohol might be involved, but I’m pretty sure I can’t prove it.)

Catching Up: June 24, 2022 Edition

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Let’s jump in.

Oh yes… comments are turned off because nothing I’m saying is up for debate or discussion. Disagree with me on your own blogs and Facebook walls.

[+] Things I should not have to say. A 7 year old girl choked in her sleep and died a week ago, and a local website put up a Facebook post to garner support for the family. Most people are responding and showing support, but some f-ing idiots have taken the opportunity to hijack it and start speculating about how it was due to the COVID vaccine.

…

WHAT THE F*** IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!?!? YOU DON’T POST THAT S*** ON A POST THAT THIS GIRL’S GRIEVING FAMILY IS TAGGED IN AND CAN SEE!!!! YOU IDIOTS ARE NOT ENTITLED TO AN AUTOPSY REPORT OF WHAT HAPPENED!!! SHUT YOUR F****** MOUTHS AND GO THE F*** AWAY!!!!

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #1. Election Day is November 8, 2022. Show up if you want to vote out the idiots who confirmed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. If you think the current Supreme Court is acceptable, feel free to skip this election.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #2. Susan Collins is butthurt because Brett Kavanaugh allegedly misled her and had given her his word that he wouldn’t vote to overturn abortion. Honey, we told you he was a lying jerk and you didn’t listen. Instead, you voted to confirm him and screwed over the nation. And you’re surprised that he did what he told you he wouldn’t do?

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #3. If you are disappointed with the decision today, you live in a red state, and/or your senator is one that voted to confirm Gorsuch/Kavanaugh/Barrett, show up at their office and make your opinion known to them. Better yet, bring a few friends and peacefully assemble when they’re in town and not in DC ruining the country. Make sure they see you with their beady little eyes and hear *EXACTLY* what you have to say. Use interpretive dance and hand puppets if necessary.

Is your senator not running again and is the Republican candidate campaigning near you? Show up at the campaign stop and make your wishes known with a beautifully-designed sign. Make sure you spell all the words correctly because we need our movement to be understood and not used as an example of what not to say on a sign.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #4. In 2006, I was on the drive from southern California to Montana when I started bleeding badly. This was weird because my period wasn’t supposed to be coming. It was serious enough that I was googling urgent care locations and emergency rooms in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City in case I needed to be seen, but I was terrified enough of the medical bill that would probably result, so I hemorrhaged blood and tissue for three days until I could get to the clinic in Montana. The chief of medicine was an a****** and told my nurse practitioner that I was a “hysterical pregnant woman having a miscarriage”, and all they offered me after an ultrasound (which showed nothing left in me) and three pregnancy tests was some progesterone. My next period showed up at the wrong time, and I opted to just bleed until my cycle normalized.

Ten years later, I was telling all of this to the resident seeing me here in Mount Vernon, and she informed me that I had very likely had a miscarriage and that they should have gone in and done a D&C to make sure that everything was indeed out. What was not done due to laziness on the part of the chief of medicine (who was eventually fired for abusive treatment of nurses) could now be illegal because Montana is one of those states with “trigger laws”.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #5. For those who are saying that doctors aren’t going to refuse to perform D&C’s on miscarriages because of these laws, it’s already happening in Alabama. I’m scared that doctors will refuse to operate on women who are having ectopic pregnancies because they’re afraid of being charged under some of the more draconian abortion laws.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #6. I have always said that I wouldn’t wish my pregnancy experience on my worst enemy.. but I’m rethinking that. I think that the senators who confirmed Gorsuch/Kavanaugh/Barrett would have a very different take on things if their threshold for calling in sick was throwing up three times on their way to work, they could only keep the glucose solution down for 30 seconds before violently throwing it up, they had to have an emergency c-section by themselves in the middle of the night after a 90-minute ambulance ride to the nearest hospital with an ICU, they had scar tissue adhesions so severe they couldn’t bend over for 7 months without almost passing out from the pain, they developed several autoimmune diseases as a result of their traumatic birth, and the scar tissue from their c-section was so bad that their surgeon discovered their reproductive organs twisted when they were opened up for a hysterectomy. I think they need to experience the terror of their period being late and the possibility of 9 months of bedrest, the threat of almost dying in childbirth AGAIN, the threat of gestational diabetes, the threat of financial ruin due to being unable to work, and the knowledge that their insurance company won’t pay for a hysterectomy because “it’s not an emergency” even though they’re done having kids.

[+] Thought on the Supreme Court verdict #7. Washington has reproductive freedom codified in law, and our governor Jay Inslee is working to get a constitutional amendment in the state protecting it. California and Oregon are joining Washington in making sure that women have a place to go if they need it.