So Over It

Ok, as I'm midway through the final week of the semester, I have to just say that I am so over it.  I'm ready to be done.  I'm tired of reading bad, incoherent essays.  I'm tired of acting supportive.  I'm just tired.  I'm feeling really kinda worthless these last few days, and it's like I have nothing left to give to my job.  And although I know it's totally normal for me to feel this way at the end of a semester, it still really sucks.  I mean, I don't have any semblence of patience or tolerance left--I guess that I'm just descending to short-tempered and snippy, with students particularly.  And while I hate feeling that way, there's also part of me that feels like saying to the students, "Hey, you deserve this.  You've turned in crap work all semester, and now it's catching up with you.  You have consistently ignored instructions on assignments and have refused to meet with me all the times I required individual conferences.  I had those conferences so that I could gently discuss the problems you've been having in class in time for you to change and somehow redeem your grade.  But you blew it off, and now it's too late."  I mean, that's life, right?  It's not so much that I hate to be the bad guy; it's more that I hate dealing with all the crap students can sometimes give when their grades turn out to be lower than they'd hoped.  And really, it always astounds me when a student has earned, say, Cs and Ds on every assignemnt and then acts shocked when he gets a D+ for his grade in the class.  That kills me.  Often, they send not just whiney but downright threatening e-mails:  "If we can't resolve this, I'll be forced to go to the dean."  And I always think, "Be my guest.  I'm over dealing with you, and the dean is not going to magically change your grade just because you think she should."  I guess that all the bad essays are bringing me down.  It's like once finals week rolls around, I'm the Grinch or something.