Last before the break

I probably won't have time to blog tomorrow: the instant the Native American Lit class is over, I intend to blast myself out of here and head for home and spring break. Whatever happens in tomorrow's two classes (and office hour) will have to go unrecorded--or get referred to at a later date.

I got the papers graded for today's class with plenty of time to spare--partly because I didn't have to really grade two of them. One--submitted by the young man who sometimes gets obstreperous in group work--didn't have the marked first version attached (he gave me his first paper, all three versions, instead; obviously he saw a rubric sheet with red pen on it and assumed it was the correct thing). I'll get it back to him after the break.

The other was plagiarized. It took me a little while to track down the source, but I found it. The young man is smart, but English is not his first language. I suspect that two things happened: one, he does not fully understand the appropriate use of sources (even though we went over it in class), and two, he panicked. But either way, he needs to learn and learn the hard way. So he got the Paul letter, and a zero for all three versions of the paper. He was hanging around after class to talk to me, until I told him we wouldn't talk today: the first sentence of the letter clearly says I won't talk about a plagiarized paper until after 24 hours have passed, but students frequently don't believe I mean it. He was pissed off--about the zero for his paper and about the fact that I wouldn't talk to him on the spot--but I told him to contact me after 24 hours and we'd set up an appointment. He will now have to wait to talk to me until after the break, but that will give him time to cool down and think about how he wants to approach this. As I said to Kayla after class, if he's contrite, I'll be kind. If he makes excuses or claims innocence or is hostile, not.

Another student who is potentially very good I kicked out of class for texting. He'd been warned before, so I booted him. (Paul's more draconian about that from the first day of classes, but I hate doing it until someone chooses to ignore a warning.) He was pissed off, too, but as I say--as I said to him--he'd been warned.

It's a shame, really, but these are the tough lessons students need to learn. Another student was guilty of a small instance of plagiarism (just a couple of words but given without citation), and between that and other penalties, his paper earned a D-. Also a shame, as he's potentially very good. He's been utterly silent in class--until today. He was in a group with the young man above--who also is very quiet--and one young woman who is more vocal but somewhat shy. I said to the guys, "You two tend to be very quiet, but it's not fair to make [the young woman] do all the talking, or to leave her sitting in silence. So I'm going to ask you to step up to the plate here. In fact," and I turned to Mr. Silent, "I'm putting you in charge of the group. You have to make sure everyone is doing what needs to be done." I reminded him of his responsibility later, too--big smiles from him both times--and lo and behold, in the class discussion, he asked a question, for the first time ever. Victory! I'm sorry I had to taint the victory with the D-, but I'm hoping he now realizes it's not dangerous to speak up in class.

The discussion was pretty good: I think we hit most of the main points, and I didn't have to drag them out of the students; they arose directly from what the students were picking up on in the text. That's a triumph of sorts in itself.

There's a small stack of stuff to be graded on my desk; if I can get what I have for the two lit classes marked and back to them by class time tomorrow, I'd be very happy (and so would the students). I think there's at least some chance of that. I also need to put in a call to see if I can reserve a room for the ecocrit reading group I'm setting up. When I return from the break, I'll have two batches of journal-logs and glossaries to mark for 102 (today's batch and what Paul collects on the Monday) and the Assessment reading to do. Over the break, even though I don't intend to work much, I may put in some time on the Chancellor's award (God knows it needs it). Other pearls may be falling through the floorboards as we speak, but that's all I can think of right now. My god, this is a blessed semester! I don't feel like I'm drowning, and that's a miracle right there.