Early Christmas Gifts

One of my female students found a typo in today's discussion questions. Ever graceful in defeat, I gave her an extra credit point. "It's like an early Christmas gift!" she exclaimed. Her friend told me that she (the friend) would look the other way on any future typos if I ignored the run-ons in today's paper. Extortionist.

Today did in fact feel a little like the holidays. Half the class was late or missing (and on the class meeting before my evaluation, too!), but the ones who were there seemed light-hearted. I was light-hearted.

I gave out an essay assignment for the weekend due on Monday (I must have said that ten times--the little Dickenses from the top of the post wrote it on their assignment sheets twice, for my benefit): The class has to write a character study of Santiago from The Alchemist, ultimately arguing what his theme song is. That got their attention. Faces lit up. I'm going to have some fun grading to do next week. Yes, yes, I promise--I'll share some of the best ones!

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