Notice about Cookies (for European readers)

I have been informed that I need to say something about how this site uses Cookies and possibly get the permission of my European readers about the use of Cookies. I'll be honest: I have no idea how the cookies on this site work. Here (I hope) are links to the pertinent information:

Google's Privacy practices: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=us

How Google uses information from sites or apps that use their services:

https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites





THINGS HAVE CHANGED:

Since I am no longer a professor in the classroom, this blog is changing focus. (I may at some future date change platforms, too, but not yet). I am now (as of May 2019) playing around with the idea of using this blog as a place to talk about the struggles of writing creatively. Those of you who have been following (or dipping in periodically) know that I've already been doing a little of that, but now the change is official. I don't write every day--yet--so I won't post to the blog every day--yet. But please do check in from time to time, if you're interested in this new phase in my life.


Hi! And you are...?

I am interested to see the fluctuation in my readers--but I don't know who is reading the blog, how you found it, and why you find it interesting. I'd love to hear from you! Please feel free to use the "comment" box at the end of any particular post to let me know what brought you to this page--and what keeps you coming back for more (if you do).





Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Systemically cranky

Poor Paul! He asked me how the college-wide assessment meeting had gone, and I very nearly snapped his head off. It actually was fine, but at that particular moment, I felt (as my sister put it) as if the myelin sheath has been removed from all my nerves; in this case, the result is that every nerve fiber is so sensitive to stimulus that things are short-circuiting all over hell and gone. Or, as another friend put it, "That's my very last nerve, and you're standing on it." I needed to not have my head in that space for a few minutes, to just eat my lunch and read my book in peace.

I think some of my crankiness about Assessment in particular is that between the two committees (departmental and college-wide), there is a massive hairball that needs to be sorted out, and like a complete idiot, I said I'd help untangle it. I'm regretting like hell the offer for all kinds of reasons, not just because of the work load. A colleague and I met with the Empress of Assessment for the campus, and after the meeting, he articulated the problem. The entire process of assessment--quantifying the unquantifiable, hair-splitting of data--is dehumanizing, not only in terms of how it views students but in what it makes of us. Further, the entire mindset behind this kind of assessment is not merely antithetical to how we operate as a discipline, it's actively counterproductive. It makes us behave in ways that destroy the very basis of what we do. So, yeah, it makes a person cranky.

On the up-side, however, I just got a visit from Wonder Student. He's going to take an incomplete rather than withdrawing. I feel enormous relief about that; it's truly wonderful news. Whew.

And the two students who came to Native American Lit today had me review their papers right there in class, giving feedback (and each got something out of listening to the feedback I gave to the other student). I'm a bit worried that the third student, the Bright Light, wasn't there, and I haven't heard from her via e-mail about her paper. Hmmmm. I hope she's not going to implode at this point. I'd be devastated.

I've gotten just barely enough of the papers graded for 102 that I feel I can stop for tonight and finish up tomorrow. I keep feeling I must be forgetting something important on the schedule tomorrow, but I've checked my calendar several times and really, nothing. So if I'm in bright and early, I should be able to finish the remaining few papers with time to spare. Well, time to do other stuff with. As usual, the triage list is ever-changing (and ever-growing), but I think I can stand to knock at least a few items off tomorrow. I hope. We'll see.

And now, it's time to have my little brown-bag dinner and then off to dance class. I do like being the student from time to time.

No comments:

Post a Comment