Well, at least I'm outpacing the snail.

I got seven essays marked today. That's about half what I'd hoped--and yes, I'm spending way too long on each one (closer to an hour than the 30 minutes I should allot). This is the down-side of electronic marking: once the keyboard is under my fingers, it's like a horse with the bit between its teeth: there's no stopping me. I have tried to comment less as I go through an essay (to avoid endless iterations of the same basic comments), and I have saved at least a few comments that I seem to be using repeatedly--primarily the one about avoiding personal voice.

And the fact that so many students used personal voice gives me another of those moments of self-doubt and self-castigation: clearly, my mind says, I didn't spend enough time talking to them about avoiding personal voice, even though I showed them the example that I wanted them to follow. Still, essay after essay includes the personal anecdote--or at best, personal experience very thinly veiled as representative of what all college students experience.

I'm telling myself that their use of personal voice is OK for this first version of the first essay: let them do it a little at first, but then have them revise their way out of it. The problem I've experienced in the past, however, is that they simply turn "I" into some generic term, with results like this: "When a person first got to college, he didn't expect the strict attendance policies that he found in his English class. He also got way too many handouts..."

Really. Seriously. Can I retire now?

What with one thing or another, I am in "flight" mode these days. I have the profound urge to chuck everything and run away--but I know that's a momentary response to feeling tired, frustrated, and, well, self-castigating.

So I just spent way too long trying to get a design for a little "static" symbol rubber stamp to use on the editing review of the essays--which accomplishes nothing worthwhile, neither in terms of life maintenance nor in terms of getting any actual work done. My doing that is yet another sign--as if more were needed--that I'm feeling frustrated and looking for diversions.

Well, perhaps I'll do better tomorrow. Today I didn't get up out of the chair much; I'm always unsure what's more productive: to just sit and work (and body be damned) or get up, lose some time to walking around, but maybe (??) have better focus when I sit down again. I do tend to lose focus very quickly and easily, if my attention is distracted, which is why I often opt for the "just sit and grind" choice.

By the way, in terms of how much grading I have to do prior to each day of conferencing, Wednesday is actually pretty easy--so far. If a bunch of students suddenly go, "OMG, I just got your email and I totally forgot to upload my essay; can I do it now??"--and if I say, "Yes, you may, this one time, but there will be a whopping penalty"--I may have more marking to do at the last (or last-ish) minute. But for Monday, I have the majority of the essays available to mark--fifteen of them, compared to eight for Wednesday (out of fourteen appointments). I actually have more appointments on Monday--there just are little breaks here and there in the day, which makes it seem less onerous than the back-to-back-to-back appointments on Wednesday. Five appointments, four essays for Tuesday. Eight appointments, three essays for Thursday. I am going to be very ready for that respite. (Of course, I also have to do the editing review, but I am, as I think I said before, only going to mark a few examples of each category of error and primarily use the rubric--so my goal is 10 minutes per essay on those.)

Argh, blech. I can't any more. I'll probably post tomorrow, though. Here's hoping I get through the seven remaining for Monday's appointments plus at least a few for Tuesday....