(oh, and we also emailed out a brief survey checking in on how they're doing. Could be anonymous-- just to take the temperature of how they're dealing and what they may need from us. ~1/3 responded, and I was humbled by how openly and vulnerably they shared with us. Most did include their name.)

So maybe some procrastinator got a bit of grace. Again-- world not going to end. It's not destroying what they learn from the course or how well prepared they are for the rest of academics or career.

Not treating students like we realize they're human, would be a much worse side to err on.

Might someone have asked to delay their exam, not because of recent events but because they just weren't prepared for unrelated reasons? Yep, sure. We didn't make them perform their struggles to decide who's *really* struggling by some subjective criteria. We offered the flexibility to all.

In other words, the world isn't going to end because of this flexibility we offered to slightly ease the load of academic demands during a week when grief and safety concerns have been added to everything else they're dealing with. And they didn't all rush to "take advantage" even if coping ok.

For their exams they were to choose 1 out of 4 topic prompts they've worked on through the first half of the semester, and the instructor conducting their exam would pick a second for them to respond to. We let them choose both they would talk about. They've chosen a diverse array of pairs of Qs.

And we made some tweaks to the course demands. They were all scheduled for individual oral exams this week. We gave them the option to reschedule for after spring break (which is next week). Six out of 26 have taken that option. Several others asked to reschedule within this week.

The apparently radical things we've done? Communicating with them. Acknowledging that this is a hard time and that we realize it's hard on many of them, too.

That's really basic. Anyone can do that. You don't need to know what to say that is some most perfect set of words. But try. Say *something*.

Because of course my colleague and I who are teaching a course together don't have magic answers to make everything fine & perfect. But the small steps we have been able to take, seem to strike students as well above the apparently low bar set by many academics.

Just... stop BEING like that, y'all.

But I've also heard far too much academic BS-ery from my students, about how some instructors have handled (or not handled, just fully ignoring recent events and proceeding as if everyone is functioning at 100% right now) this situation.

And I'm so very over the fact that I'm not even surprised.

Many folks have been seeking ways to support students & each other. I attended a workshop (one of two such sessions offered that day) last week for instructors and others who interact with students to discuss how to move forward with all that following such tragedies. ~150 folks took part.

Plus a lot of expressions of racism and xenophobia following arrest of a suspect in that crime, and speculation and rumors about other marginalized communities (e.g., unhoused folks) prior to identification of that suspect.

In other words, it's all a lot.

"don't compare yourself to others, everyone has their own path" increasingly feels like the kind of thing said by people who in fact often compared favorably to others/were themselves able to find a quite successful path in (or at least getting through) academia

Additional context: there's a bit of a break in my semester in a few weeks, when I'd also likely be able to fly out & drive the car back (maybe even working in a sight-seeing stop or two along the way?) if it seems that'd be a better option overall.

Any experiences/insights welcome (it's daunting to sift through reviews/details of even the major/most- recommended services), but esp. valuable are if you've had experiences you can compare among multiple/can speak to how a co. handled things if anything went amiss (e.g. damage en route)

3/

I'm buying a car from a relative in another state. I've looked into some car transport service rates, and am cool w/ that cost as part of the deal for the vehicle in question.

My Q. is, anyone have experiences with particular car transport cos. that'd be good to know?

2/

..........this statement is both demonstrably inaccurate & kinda confusing re: any statement it's trying to make 🤨🤷‍♀️

Bless Zuck's heart, Snoop is a whole 51 years old 😂

Last semester I had a student be like "if you know who Drew Barrymore is..." which totally threw me, and then I learned that less than 1/2 of them actually did have any idea who she was 😆

(I put it in a planter outside for a relatively safe spot-- a bit of cover, not going to get swarmed by ants or whatnot-- in case it needed to recover. It was still there 5-10 min later but not there ~45 min later)

(I'm talking about like, folks in the U.S. who are totally into exurban/rural living because they want to enjoy looking at picturesque vistas of nature, but who are then entirely dumfounded at the fact that all parts of said nature do in fact exist around them)