Two down...

I'd say I'm proud of myself, but it's pretty ridiculously late for that. Let's say I'm relieved: I finally have marked those two papers for students who wanted the feedback. I was talking with Kristin about it earlier this week and realized I was completely within my rights to tell them no: I did specifically say that students needed to let me know when they submitted their papers if they wanted them back marked, and neither of these students did (they let me know a day--or several days--later). Still, I made this into a much bigger production than I needed to by letting it drag on so long. But it's done now, at long last.

I also must say, in re-reading one of the papers, I realize I was wildly generous in the grade. The ideas are good, but the paper is a mess: disorganized, lacking in connections, lacking in evidence. I guess in the end-of-semester flurry (and in comparison to some of the papers I got) it seemed better to me than a more sober examination supports. Ah well. I wrote a note to go with it, so when the student picks it up, she will be told that I'd have been harder on the paper if I'd gotten it earlier in the semester. She'd also have had a chance to revise it if I'd gotten it earlier; that lack of chance for her to go back and fix may have weighed into my generosity with the grade. Or I may just have not been paying very much attention: I was so frantic to be fucking done with it all....

The student who was supposed to drop off her final paper to fulfill an incomplete today didn't show (a health crisis with her daughter). I'm not unhappy. I wouldn't have been grading the thing over the weekend anyway. We'll see how next week shapes up.

One of the other students who got an incomplete did meet with me to discuss when she'll be getting missing assignments to me. I'm thinking I may draw up a little contract, so we both have it in writing: I want everything in enough time that I can get it all marked and out of my hair before the last week in August--and since I will not be marking anything while I'm away in July, well, she'll need to time things out accordingly.

The final "incomplete" is more worrying. I sent the student an e-mail and sent a letter to her home, asking her to let me know when she thought she'd finish up the missing assignments. I haven't heard from her. I did let her know that if she doesn't finish the incomplete by the end of next semester, it reverts to an F and there is nothing I can do about it. My fear is that she'll turn up in the fall, wanting to do it all then, when I will be dealing with a whole new bunch of classes and students and papers. The other possibility, of course, is that she will vanish and get the F. (That's happened frequently in the past, sadly enough.) I was thinking I'd call her, but on consideration, I think I won't. It's her grade: she needs to take responsibility for it.

Sigh.

The office is still an ungodly wreck and probably will remain in that state for some time--unless I get a very unexpected burst of energy on one of the days when I'm in doing work on the assessment project. (Hah.) Ah well. I'll get it sorted out before the first day of fall semester--maybe just before, but before.

Or not.

Gack. I can't think about this any more: I need to let my brain go out to pasture for a while. I'll take a quick look through what's on my desk to see if there is anything there that is personal that I want to take home, and then I am out of here... until Tuesday.