Yes, she can.

I got the assignments all marked with five minutes to spare, in which to eat my sandwich before P&B. Huge sigh.

This will be another very quick, unrevised, unreviewed post, however--and probably my last one for the week. I'm blasting out of here very soon to go to a private dance lesson, followed by class; tomorrow I'll be working at home (unlikely to blog, as I'll just be grading papers); Thursday I have to leave immediately after my last class for an appointment.

The good news: both classes did well with the discussion today--perhaps better than any classes I've had in terms of getting some of the fine points in Le Guin's "Ile Forest." Hooray. In both classes, the conversation could have continued far beyond the end of the class period; I love it when the students are so caught up they don't realize we're out of time.

I'm a little less sanguine about their understanding of their first versions of their papers. It will be a good sign if I get a flood of e-mails with questions about it--and it will be interesting to see how the process rolls. Some of the students had a rather unhappy realization that getting an A may require more than they thought: I showed them the SUNY description of what it takes to "exceed expectations"--and told them that A papers exceed expectations. I did reassure them that they'd have the opportunity to work to improve: that's the whole point of revision. And of course, in the later class, a couple of smart-asses asked what would happen if I thought the paper was an A, or an A+, in its first version. "There's still room for improvement." They're not buying it, but it's true. An A for a 102 class isn't the same as an A for a literature elective--nor is an A in a freshman-level course (which 102 ostensibly is) the same as an A in an upper-level course. "What if it's perfect?" "Perfection is unattainable, my friend."

All in all, I have one student in each class who should be able to get the first paper to A quality. A few more may surprise me. I showed them the classic bell curve: that's what real grading is, folks. Forget about grade inflation.

A lovely development to record: one student in the later class has suddenly started teasing other students, even me a little. Prior to today, she was Silent Bobette, and suddenly she's blossoming. I love when that happens.

There's probably more I could record, but I'll leave it at that so I can wolf down a little food before I go dance myself silly. Further posts this week are possible if something of great moment occurs. Otherwise, I'll leave you with this lovely thought from a student's idea log: "The women showed their manhood." A neat trick if you can do it.