Well, OK, maybe they don't, but I do like the fact that even the more apparently truculent students from the SF class have decidedly softened in demeanor and seem very willing to hear and absorb my suggestions. With the Budding Literary Critic's group, I got into a little bit of a riff on a bird motif in Oryx and Crake, as one student was noticing that Alex the Parrot seems to show up at various specific points in the narrative. (They also were stunned to find out that Alex the Parrot is--or was--real. I told the story of Alex saying "I'm going away now" before he died, but now I'm not sure that's true. Whenever I say something like that, I wonder how important it is for me to correct myself...) Today I also sort of micro-managed the groups, trying to get interesting and potentially new mixes: some worked, others less so, but all the groups had at least one person in them who could carry the conversation, and sometimes that person was able to bring others along.
One particularly gratifying moment came at the start of class. When Scott subbed for me last week, he used a thematic grid on the board and had students fill in the grid. Knowing that at least one student found that grid structure very helpful in creating his notes, I asked today whether they preferred that approach--and before I could even finish the sentence, they were all vigorously shaking their heads "No." As they explained, the grid didn't allow them enough freedom to bring in whatever they were finding; they had a lot of responses that didn't fit neatly into the boxes. I was thrilled. I know sometimes they need more structure than I provide, and I'm trying to hit a compromise between providing structure and encouraging freedom to explore ideas. At least with most of the students in this particular class, I seem to have struck a good balance.
After class, I had a brief talk with a student who had plagiarized one of his sets of notes. I was very forgiving; I told him I knew he'd been motivated by panic and told him that I honestly would prefer his questions than regurgitated answers. He was so relieved he was almost in tears--but truly, I'd rather he learn something about how to think than that he be punished for being insecure and relying on a cheat to get him through. There are times when the "nope, it's a zero" boom must fall (and I may be getting there with the Media Mogul in the 101s, who said that the zero was "unacceptable" but who hasn't made the effort to see me to talk about it). But often, I find giving the students a chance to fix the mistake pays off better than the punishment.
There is certainly more I could say about today, but I'm getting out of here: Paul and I are going to see Blade Runner 2049 together, so I have to dash. And I have a training session tomorrow (I was actually supposed to go today but spaced it) on the new scheduling software we're supposed to use from now on (and I'll rant some other time about how those of us with advanced degrees are being used as clerks), so I need to make sure I have everything ready in my pack before I leave. And I need to leave in about 3 minutes, so....
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Monday, October 30, 2017
Making slight headway
Both classes went well enough today--though both classes were pretty sparsely attended. The students were paying attention as I went over the writing process (again), talked about what happens in each stage, and still were paying attention and taking notes as I talked through APA format. I'm pretty sure I covered essentially the same stuff in both classes, which is often a concern: I realize I didn't tell one class or the other something crucial, or feel I covered something much better in one class than in the other. But today, everything felt calm enough.
The only thing I could be concerned about is that I have a lot to do tomorrow, very possibly more than I can actually get done. I have a big stack of stuff to mark for the SF class--which technically I don't have to get back tomorrow, but it would be nice to feel like I have my feet clear going into Wednesday and the deluge of first versions of essays from the comp classes. More important is to review the remaining sabbatical applications before P&B.
So the big question is, how early am I going to be able to get up? I've had all these wonderful intention about setting a 6 a.m. alarm on Tuesdays and Thursdays--and more often than not, I've either turned the alarm off and gone right back to sleep or haven't bothered to set it at all. Consequently, I'm not making myself any promises about tomorrow. I hope I have the discipline to get up early--if not at 6 then at least at 6:30, which is my usual Monday/Wednesday alarm time. But if sleep wins the battle, so be it.
I'd also like to report that both Paul and Scott said they enjoyed subbing my classes. I know that's sort of the nice thing to say, like gesundheit in answer to a sneeze, but I don't think they're just being polite: I think they actually did like the classes. I certainly do.
I was thinking about that today, in fact. I'm blessed this semester: all three of my classes are just fine, not a bad one in the bunch, and that's rare. I realized today that if I could just have classes like these every semester and not deal with any of the other headaches that come with this job, I'd not be in such a big hurry to retire. Of course, there are no guarantees that I'll have such good luck in future semesters--and I am not yet free of the other headaches. If I want to continue getting the evening supervisor stipend, I need to continue to be a member of P&B, and there are enough headaches attached to that as it is. I don't do much on the seminar hours committee beyond providing the occasional idea; I haven't done any actual work in some time--and I feel oddly guilt-free about that. I've paid my fucking dues, thank you very much: that's why I have the full professorship. Of course, a number of members of that committee are also full professors--true of P&B, too, now that I think of it. Some of us just are cursed with giving a shit, so we end up doing the work even when we don't have to. William is smart enough to have found places to do work that he actually enjoys, in addition to its being highly valuable to the department and the campus. I haven't got that figured out yet (partly because there isn't much work I enjoy when it comes to committees), but I'm at least able to limit myself to just those two committees. I do that work; I go to the contractually mandated number of professional development events each year; I teach. Done.
And I'm good at the teaching part. Really good at it. My comp students really do learn something about writing. My lit students really do learn something about the literature, whatever it is. I'm not as gifted as the adjunct I observed a while back, but I'm still damned good. And I think I can make it through at least two more semesters after this one. Beyond that, I don't know--but I don't have to know yet.
In fact, I don't have to think about any of those upcoming semesters at all. The only thing I have to think about right now is getting myself home, shedding the professorial persona on the way, and do the stuff I do just as a human being in the world. That's pretty damned good.
The only thing I could be concerned about is that I have a lot to do tomorrow, very possibly more than I can actually get done. I have a big stack of stuff to mark for the SF class--which technically I don't have to get back tomorrow, but it would be nice to feel like I have my feet clear going into Wednesday and the deluge of first versions of essays from the comp classes. More important is to review the remaining sabbatical applications before P&B.
So the big question is, how early am I going to be able to get up? I've had all these wonderful intention about setting a 6 a.m. alarm on Tuesdays and Thursdays--and more often than not, I've either turned the alarm off and gone right back to sleep or haven't bothered to set it at all. Consequently, I'm not making myself any promises about tomorrow. I hope I have the discipline to get up early--if not at 6 then at least at 6:30, which is my usual Monday/Wednesday alarm time. But if sleep wins the battle, so be it.
I'd also like to report that both Paul and Scott said they enjoyed subbing my classes. I know that's sort of the nice thing to say, like gesundheit in answer to a sneeze, but I don't think they're just being polite: I think they actually did like the classes. I certainly do.
I was thinking about that today, in fact. I'm blessed this semester: all three of my classes are just fine, not a bad one in the bunch, and that's rare. I realized today that if I could just have classes like these every semester and not deal with any of the other headaches that come with this job, I'd not be in such a big hurry to retire. Of course, there are no guarantees that I'll have such good luck in future semesters--and I am not yet free of the other headaches. If I want to continue getting the evening supervisor stipend, I need to continue to be a member of P&B, and there are enough headaches attached to that as it is. I don't do much on the seminar hours committee beyond providing the occasional idea; I haven't done any actual work in some time--and I feel oddly guilt-free about that. I've paid my fucking dues, thank you very much: that's why I have the full professorship. Of course, a number of members of that committee are also full professors--true of P&B, too, now that I think of it. Some of us just are cursed with giving a shit, so we end up doing the work even when we don't have to. William is smart enough to have found places to do work that he actually enjoys, in addition to its being highly valuable to the department and the campus. I haven't got that figured out yet (partly because there isn't much work I enjoy when it comes to committees), but I'm at least able to limit myself to just those two committees. I do that work; I go to the contractually mandated number of professional development events each year; I teach. Done.
And I'm good at the teaching part. Really good at it. My comp students really do learn something about writing. My lit students really do learn something about the literature, whatever it is. I'm not as gifted as the adjunct I observed a while back, but I'm still damned good. And I think I can make it through at least two more semesters after this one. Beyond that, I don't know--but I don't have to know yet.
In fact, I don't have to think about any of those upcoming semesters at all. The only thing I have to think about right now is getting myself home, shedding the professorial persona on the way, and do the stuff I do just as a human being in the world. That's pretty damned good.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
It's all good...
I got through all the accumulated homework for the 101s before end of day yesterday--despite time spent doing things like going to riding lessons, fiddle lessons, yoga class. The secret? Barely pay attention.
I'm a bit concerned that I haven't been paying enough attention in the past, however, as in their notes, several students quoted directly from the readings without using quotation marks--so I've had to nail them for plagiarism. I hope they haven't been doing that all along, but I suppose better I catch them now than not at all.
Today, I got through all the discussion boards. I took a lot longer at that than was strictly necessary, as I kept looking things up, both through highly unacademic Google searches and through more academically sound database searches. But I had fun pointing students to further information. It may have been completely wasted effort--I don't know how many (if any) of the students will bother to return to those discussion boards to see my comments, even though I told them in an email they could and should. But we know that they don't tend to read their email. Ah well.
And I know, but keep willfully forgetting, that their diligence in keeping up with the discussion boards will wane if they don't see evidence that I'm checking. Between that and the fact that the boards are really only working for one of the classes, I'm considering not doing them at all next semester. Whether I do or not will depend a lot on how much work I get done on the online Nature in Lit course before the start of the spring semester, which will dictate how much time I have to reconfigure the 101s. If I don't have time to reconfigure the 101s, I'll just adjust dates to fit the spring schedule.
I started working on the accumulated notes for the SF class, too--and realized that I hadn't returned some old homework as well as graded essays to a few students who were absent or late when I was returning work. I feel terrible that I have such a huge accumulation of stuff for certain students, as my comments might maybe have been beneficial. But again, ah well. What I'm liking is that most of the students seem to be doing a better job of their notes of late. I'll take that with gratitude.
Of course, typically for me, I had ambitions to get a lot more done this weekend than I actually accomplished. I have decided, however, that between now and Wednesday, when I collect the first version of the second essay from my 101 students, I should be able to find time to noodle around with some of the stuff I'd hoped to do this weekend--including cranking through the rest of the accumulated notes from the SF students so I can return everything to them on Tuesday. I'll have the homework for the 101s that Paul collected to crank through as well--and we're getting to the point in the semester when I can't count on having time in Advisement to get my own stuff done, so that may mean an early alarm for tomorrow. At the moment, that doesn't seem dreadful.
Now, however, it's a chilly, rainy day, and I intend to simply enjoy being cozy with what remains of it.
I'm a bit concerned that I haven't been paying enough attention in the past, however, as in their notes, several students quoted directly from the readings without using quotation marks--so I've had to nail them for plagiarism. I hope they haven't been doing that all along, but I suppose better I catch them now than not at all.
Today, I got through all the discussion boards. I took a lot longer at that than was strictly necessary, as I kept looking things up, both through highly unacademic Google searches and through more academically sound database searches. But I had fun pointing students to further information. It may have been completely wasted effort--I don't know how many (if any) of the students will bother to return to those discussion boards to see my comments, even though I told them in an email they could and should. But we know that they don't tend to read their email. Ah well.
And I know, but keep willfully forgetting, that their diligence in keeping up with the discussion boards will wane if they don't see evidence that I'm checking. Between that and the fact that the boards are really only working for one of the classes, I'm considering not doing them at all next semester. Whether I do or not will depend a lot on how much work I get done on the online Nature in Lit course before the start of the spring semester, which will dictate how much time I have to reconfigure the 101s. If I don't have time to reconfigure the 101s, I'll just adjust dates to fit the spring schedule.
I started working on the accumulated notes for the SF class, too--and realized that I hadn't returned some old homework as well as graded essays to a few students who were absent or late when I was returning work. I feel terrible that I have such a huge accumulation of stuff for certain students, as my comments might maybe have been beneficial. But again, ah well. What I'm liking is that most of the students seem to be doing a better job of their notes of late. I'll take that with gratitude.
Of course, typically for me, I had ambitions to get a lot more done this weekend than I actually accomplished. I have decided, however, that between now and Wednesday, when I collect the first version of the second essay from my 101 students, I should be able to find time to noodle around with some of the stuff I'd hoped to do this weekend--including cranking through the rest of the accumulated notes from the SF students so I can return everything to them on Tuesday. I'll have the homework for the 101s that Paul collected to crank through as well--and we're getting to the point in the semester when I can't count on having time in Advisement to get my own stuff done, so that may mean an early alarm for tomorrow. At the moment, that doesn't seem dreadful.
Now, however, it's a chilly, rainy day, and I intend to simply enjoy being cozy with what remains of it.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Mentally already out the door...
This was another day when I struggled to get myself up, out of the house, and to work. As usual, once I was here, the routine took over, old mule in her traces, and I was able to be at least a little bit of a "good girl" and got a few of the sabbatical applications read prior to today's meeting. It turned out I did plenty, as the press of other business prevented us from looking at all of the applications (not to mention the fact that a new member of the committee didn't understand the process of everyone looking at all the applications; he'd taken the two he's mentoring into his office, so none of the rest of us got to look at those--but that's partly our "bad," as we assumed he'd understand a process to which he is new). In any event, I've left myself a triage list that reminds me to look at the rest of the applications before next week's meeting.
By the way, that triage list hasn't changed appreciably in the last month. The items on it still remain, unaddressed, shoved to the side by the marking of student assignments.
I did, however, interrupt my blog posting at that point to write up the observation I conducted on Thursday. That was great to relive: just remembering how delightful the experience was made me feel better about things generally.
Several student interactions:
The Media Mogul was guilty of plagiarism in the final version of his first essay. That's zero credit, but I asked him to stay after class to talk to me about it. He had something else to dash off to, so I just handed the essay back to him. I got an email, saying he wanted to see me during my office hour today (I don't have an office hour on Tuesdays), and saying that the zero was "unacceptable" because of what it would do to his grade. I emailed back and said that I could see him during my seminar hours today--and that perhaps he might consider that what was "unacceptable" was the plagiarism itself. However, I explained, I'd be happy to talk with him about it, as I'd rather use it as a learning opportunity than as a moment of punishment. He never responded to my email, which I didn't find tremendously surprising.
If he decides to actually talk with me, I'll offer him the same deal I offered to another student in the class who was also guilty of the same kind of "accidental" plagiarism: rewrite the offending paragraph, resubmit the essay, and I'll grade that. I don't for a minute believe that either of them intentionally plagiarized--both included the source from which the unattributed material was taken as part of their essay submission--but they need to learn how to avoid the "accident." Nevertheless, the Media Mogul jumps up and down on my very last nerve, and if he comes at me with attitude, any offer of mercy will be withdrawn. (Don't tell me what you will and won't accept when it comes to grades I give or my policies about plagiarism. You find the grade unacceptable? So's gravity. Deal with it.)
And while we're on the subject, the Probable Plagiarist in the SF class did a completely different format for his notes (or his girlfriend did, not sure). But I don't mind at all; the main thing for me is that he was really excited about how much better this method works for him. He said he was putting maybe even more time into doing his notes, but he was really enjoying the reading, finding it like a puzzle, getting more out of the process--and felt like he had more to use for his forthcoming essays. He may be lying through his teeth, but I don't think so. I'll be very interested to see the new notes--and the main thing, for me, that he's happy about the class now. Excellent. And if he explains his process to me, I'll use it as an option in the future. Whatever works.
The young man from the earlier 101 I've talked about before--I've not given him a moniker yet, but I'll call him Street Smart--has been emailing me about how to do MLA citations for an essay he's writing for another class. (Glad what I'm teaching is proving of broader use than just for my class.) He also wanted to talk with me today--about what, I don't know, but I hope to get a chance to talk with him next week.
Back to the SF class, one of the better students in the class asked if he could meet with me next week about his revision. Yes, I said; happy to do it. I just sent him an email saying that we can also meet when I'm conferencing with 101 students the week before the revision is due; I'll make that offer to anyone in the SF class, once all my 101 students have had a chance to sign up for their conference times. But I'm glad that A. he wants to revise and B. he is being proactive about meeting with me before he does.
And further to the SF class: in addition to all the student work I'm schlepping home, stuff I need to mark before first classes next week, I'm schlepping home a bunch of articles I selected for possible use by the students in SF for their second essay. Working on that assignment is actually a lot more fun than marking student stuff, so I will probably focus on that tomorrow--if I do anything that looks like work at all, which I may not.
And at that, I've hit the wall. My brain had pretty well checked out hours ago; I've just been noodling here so I don't get home while my house cleaner is still at work. Now I'll be able to toddle off home and metaphorically let my hair down and put on bunny slippers. I know I won't be posting tomorrow (I'll be on the train to the City for that meditation workshop at about the time I'd usually be posting); Thursday through Sunday? Who knows. But I'll be back on Monday if not before. Meanwhile, zei gezunt.
By the way, that triage list hasn't changed appreciably in the last month. The items on it still remain, unaddressed, shoved to the side by the marking of student assignments.
I did, however, interrupt my blog posting at that point to write up the observation I conducted on Thursday. That was great to relive: just remembering how delightful the experience was made me feel better about things generally.
Several student interactions:
The Media Mogul was guilty of plagiarism in the final version of his first essay. That's zero credit, but I asked him to stay after class to talk to me about it. He had something else to dash off to, so I just handed the essay back to him. I got an email, saying he wanted to see me during my office hour today (I don't have an office hour on Tuesdays), and saying that the zero was "unacceptable" because of what it would do to his grade. I emailed back and said that I could see him during my seminar hours today--and that perhaps he might consider that what was "unacceptable" was the plagiarism itself. However, I explained, I'd be happy to talk with him about it, as I'd rather use it as a learning opportunity than as a moment of punishment. He never responded to my email, which I didn't find tremendously surprising.
If he decides to actually talk with me, I'll offer him the same deal I offered to another student in the class who was also guilty of the same kind of "accidental" plagiarism: rewrite the offending paragraph, resubmit the essay, and I'll grade that. I don't for a minute believe that either of them intentionally plagiarized--both included the source from which the unattributed material was taken as part of their essay submission--but they need to learn how to avoid the "accident." Nevertheless, the Media Mogul jumps up and down on my very last nerve, and if he comes at me with attitude, any offer of mercy will be withdrawn. (Don't tell me what you will and won't accept when it comes to grades I give or my policies about plagiarism. You find the grade unacceptable? So's gravity. Deal with it.)
And while we're on the subject, the Probable Plagiarist in the SF class did a completely different format for his notes (or his girlfriend did, not sure). But I don't mind at all; the main thing for me is that he was really excited about how much better this method works for him. He said he was putting maybe even more time into doing his notes, but he was really enjoying the reading, finding it like a puzzle, getting more out of the process--and felt like he had more to use for his forthcoming essays. He may be lying through his teeth, but I don't think so. I'll be very interested to see the new notes--and the main thing, for me, that he's happy about the class now. Excellent. And if he explains his process to me, I'll use it as an option in the future. Whatever works.
The young man from the earlier 101 I've talked about before--I've not given him a moniker yet, but I'll call him Street Smart--has been emailing me about how to do MLA citations for an essay he's writing for another class. (Glad what I'm teaching is proving of broader use than just for my class.) He also wanted to talk with me today--about what, I don't know, but I hope to get a chance to talk with him next week.
Back to the SF class, one of the better students in the class asked if he could meet with me next week about his revision. Yes, I said; happy to do it. I just sent him an email saying that we can also meet when I'm conferencing with 101 students the week before the revision is due; I'll make that offer to anyone in the SF class, once all my 101 students have had a chance to sign up for their conference times. But I'm glad that A. he wants to revise and B. he is being proactive about meeting with me before he does.
And further to the SF class: in addition to all the student work I'm schlepping home, stuff I need to mark before first classes next week, I'm schlepping home a bunch of articles I selected for possible use by the students in SF for their second essay. Working on that assignment is actually a lot more fun than marking student stuff, so I will probably focus on that tomorrow--if I do anything that looks like work at all, which I may not.
And at that, I've hit the wall. My brain had pretty well checked out hours ago; I've just been noodling here so I don't get home while my house cleaner is still at work. Now I'll be able to toddle off home and metaphorically let my hair down and put on bunny slippers. I know I won't be posting tomorrow (I'll be on the train to the City for that meditation workshop at about the time I'd usually be posting); Thursday through Sunday? Who knows. But I'll be back on Monday if not before. Meanwhile, zei gezunt.
Monday, October 23, 2017
"You sound so educated..."
In Advisement today, I was working with a young woman while a friend of hers sat behind me, listening. After I finished giving the student all my advice and so on, I turned to her friend and apologized for having had my back to her the whole time. She said, "That's OK; I really like listening to you talk. You sound so educated." Thanks. That's because I am. (Well, actually it also has something to do with my mother being educated, because her parents were educated, so I'd talk that way whether I had the degrees or not. But I do have the degrees.)
The friend also asked if I was an English professor--and the student I had been working with then asked what I'd be teaching. I mentioned the online Nature in Lit. I completely forgot to mention that I am also slated to teach SF again. Two electives, count 'em: two! If they both run (which they may not), that means only one section of comp. Of course, the online class will devour more of my time than I'm prepared for, I'm sure (especially if I don't manage to get it at least 99% constructed before the semester starts), but still: only one comp--good lord willin' and all that.
Today, it occurred to me to revamp--again--how I structure the essay writing for the 101s. This semester I ditched the "preliminary" round, in which students simply wrote from their own knowledge and personal experience, not using any sources at all--which is good in that they are forced to be "academic" right away but not so good in that they tend to fall back into simply writing reports instead of arguments. Today I thought, "What if we did an in-class draft, based just on personal experience, and turned that into a full-fledged essay?" I'm not sure how that would work in terms of the flow, but I was hoping I might save myself a step of intensive grading somehow....
Well, it bears thinking about.
I did manage to get all the essays back to students today, but the stacks of other work I've collected are getting ridiculous, and one student in the 5:00 class pointed out that they might want to get started working on their essays before Monday and could use those notes. True. I don't think there are many in that (rather ambitious and self-directed) boat, but I did tell them to let me know if they want to see their notes before Monday and I'd make sure they get them back somehow. I know I won't get everything even close to marked by Wednesday--and I just finally got confirmation that the workshop really will happen that day, so it's a good thing I told Paul that I'd take advantage of his willingness to sub for me anyway. I like to think I'll spend the day getting caught up on work before I head into the City, but, well, see yesterday's post about pressure....
Classes went fine; no big excitement but no disappointments. I have to get in relatively early tomorrow so I can review sabbatical applications prior to class, be ready for P&B. My systemic crankiness continues unabated, accompanied by apparently insoluble exhaustion. My raveled sleave of care remains unknit; my sore labor remains unbathed; apparently I'm still on great nature's first course....
I'm going home now. I'll post again tomorrow, barring disaster or the unforeseen.
The friend also asked if I was an English professor--and the student I had been working with then asked what I'd be teaching. I mentioned the online Nature in Lit. I completely forgot to mention that I am also slated to teach SF again. Two electives, count 'em: two! If they both run (which they may not), that means only one section of comp. Of course, the online class will devour more of my time than I'm prepared for, I'm sure (especially if I don't manage to get it at least 99% constructed before the semester starts), but still: only one comp--good lord willin' and all that.
Today, it occurred to me to revamp--again--how I structure the essay writing for the 101s. This semester I ditched the "preliminary" round, in which students simply wrote from their own knowledge and personal experience, not using any sources at all--which is good in that they are forced to be "academic" right away but not so good in that they tend to fall back into simply writing reports instead of arguments. Today I thought, "What if we did an in-class draft, based just on personal experience, and turned that into a full-fledged essay?" I'm not sure how that would work in terms of the flow, but I was hoping I might save myself a step of intensive grading somehow....
Well, it bears thinking about.
I did manage to get all the essays back to students today, but the stacks of other work I've collected are getting ridiculous, and one student in the 5:00 class pointed out that they might want to get started working on their essays before Monday and could use those notes. True. I don't think there are many in that (rather ambitious and self-directed) boat, but I did tell them to let me know if they want to see their notes before Monday and I'd make sure they get them back somehow. I know I won't get everything even close to marked by Wednesday--and I just finally got confirmation that the workshop really will happen that day, so it's a good thing I told Paul that I'd take advantage of his willingness to sub for me anyway. I like to think I'll spend the day getting caught up on work before I head into the City, but, well, see yesterday's post about pressure....
Classes went fine; no big excitement but no disappointments. I have to get in relatively early tomorrow so I can review sabbatical applications prior to class, be ready for P&B. My systemic crankiness continues unabated, accompanied by apparently insoluble exhaustion. My raveled sleave of care remains unknit; my sore labor remains unbathed; apparently I'm still on great nature's first course....
I'm going home now. I'll post again tomorrow, barring disaster or the unforeseen.
Sunday, October 22, 2017
It isn't that I work well under pressure...
Over the years, I've had to acknowledge that, essentially, I only work under pressure. If the pressure is off, I will do everything, anything, but work. I still complain about the pressure, mind you: that seems to be a requirement. Procrastinate until the pressure builds to a certain level (which varies); complain about being under so much pressure; get the work done; pressure is relieved; lather, rinse, repeat.
So, despite the fact that I could have kept working today to reduce the number of essays I "need" to mark for tomorrow's classes, I quit a little before 6 (and that was after having taken a nap). I didn't get much marked yesterday either. Now, I grant, I got all the essays marked for the earlier section of 101, but I haven't marked any for the 5:00 class--and I haven't touched the enormous stacks of homework I have to mark, nor have I looked at the discussion boards from this past week.
I still haven't received confirmation of the workshop I plan on attending on Wednesday, either, so I'm on the fence about whether to take the day off anyway or save the day (and the abuse of Paul as a sub for me). If I go to work on Wednesday, I can try to get all the homework returned to the students by then. If I don't, they won't get it back until a week from Monday--just before their essays are due.
But mentally, I've already checked out for the week--and the week hasn't started. This is not a good sign, and this is more than the usual procrastination. I'm getting the "I'm too old for this shit" feeling pretty profoundly, and the "can't I retire now" whine is getting very loud indeed.
I hope that being in the classroom tomorrow gives me a little energy buzz. I will have to get up extra early to get some work done in the morning before Advisement, as I really am determined to get those essays back to the students tomorrow; apparently the self-induced pressure just hasn't built sufficiently for me to keep pushing today.
It just occurred to me that part of what's producing the current level of malaise is the knowledge that I'm getting paid less than I have been for the evening supervisor gig--and I don't feel like I'm getting paid enough. The previous reduction didn't bother me so much, in part because it happened at about the same time I was promoted, so the increase in the "hourly" rate pretty well compensated for the reduction in the number of hours. But this drop, I feel--and I've been feeling tired and cranky long enough that taking away even a little bit of the goodies makes me feel significantly put upon. The evening supervisor pay doesn't make a difference to any increase in my retirement funds, just how much I can salt away in savings (my "I'll need to buy a car eventually" money, mostly), but psychologically, it feels like being put on a celery and skim-milk diet.
Well, nothing I can do about that part of things for now--but I am monitoring the balance between my desire to have as cushy a retirement as possible and my desire to get the hell out before I curdle.
Wow. Grumpy day. And the essays weren't even all that bad, for the most part. Maybe an early night tonight will help improve my mood. That's what I'm aiming for, anyway.
So, despite the fact that I could have kept working today to reduce the number of essays I "need" to mark for tomorrow's classes, I quit a little before 6 (and that was after having taken a nap). I didn't get much marked yesterday either. Now, I grant, I got all the essays marked for the earlier section of 101, but I haven't marked any for the 5:00 class--and I haven't touched the enormous stacks of homework I have to mark, nor have I looked at the discussion boards from this past week.
I still haven't received confirmation of the workshop I plan on attending on Wednesday, either, so I'm on the fence about whether to take the day off anyway or save the day (and the abuse of Paul as a sub for me). If I go to work on Wednesday, I can try to get all the homework returned to the students by then. If I don't, they won't get it back until a week from Monday--just before their essays are due.
But mentally, I've already checked out for the week--and the week hasn't started. This is not a good sign, and this is more than the usual procrastination. I'm getting the "I'm too old for this shit" feeling pretty profoundly, and the "can't I retire now" whine is getting very loud indeed.
I hope that being in the classroom tomorrow gives me a little energy buzz. I will have to get up extra early to get some work done in the morning before Advisement, as I really am determined to get those essays back to the students tomorrow; apparently the self-induced pressure just hasn't built sufficiently for me to keep pushing today.
It just occurred to me that part of what's producing the current level of malaise is the knowledge that I'm getting paid less than I have been for the evening supervisor gig--and I don't feel like I'm getting paid enough. The previous reduction didn't bother me so much, in part because it happened at about the same time I was promoted, so the increase in the "hourly" rate pretty well compensated for the reduction in the number of hours. But this drop, I feel--and I've been feeling tired and cranky long enough that taking away even a little bit of the goodies makes me feel significantly put upon. The evening supervisor pay doesn't make a difference to any increase in my retirement funds, just how much I can salt away in savings (my "I'll need to buy a car eventually" money, mostly), but psychologically, it feels like being put on a celery and skim-milk diet.
Well, nothing I can do about that part of things for now--but I am monitoring the balance between my desire to have as cushy a retirement as possible and my desire to get the hell out before I curdle.
Wow. Grumpy day. And the essays weren't even all that bad, for the most part. Maybe an early night tonight will help improve my mood. That's what I'm aiming for, anyway.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
A lovely way to end the week...
I know I'm supposed to keep information about observations close to the vest, but I don't think I can get in trouble for saying something good about someone--and the adjunct I just observed was brilliant. I am not using that lightly: I was completely impressed and engrossed. I was supposed to only observe until 7:15, but I stayed the remaining 40 minutes of the extended session simply because I was enjoying it too much to leave. I am actually looking forward to writing up the observation. We absolutely hit pay dirt on this one. Interestingly enough, I'm the person who interviewed this adjunct, though I don't remember it; it was a number of years ago, and it wasn't until recently that we could actually offer this person some courses. I'm thrilled to bits that I made the recommendation to hire, and wish we could offer this person a full-time contract. I've observed wonderful classes in my time, but this one takes the blue ribbon, hands down.
**satisfied sigh**
I did manage to get the essays returned to the students in the SF class (though I finished up the last of them at the start of class). I still have a little homework from them that I need to go through, but that can wait until after I turn my attention back to the 101s for a while. Several of the essays were quite good. Several were disappointing. I mentioned to one student that I very much want him to revise, as I know he can do better, and he said he knew it too: he knew he hadn't given himself enough time to do his best work. Glad he knows it. Interestingly, the Budding Literary Critic's essay was not only riddled with sentence-level errors, it was problematic in terms of the logic and support for his argument. He relied a lot on appeals to the emotions--which he tends to do in class discussion as well; I'm perpetually trying to bring him to a more measured, analytical stance. I thought he might be able to rein it in for his essay, but I think he's used to being able to get away with a lot because he is so clearly intelligent. I hope he revises, too--and I hope he comes to see me for guidance before he does.
And one student I know did not write his essay. I talked to him after class about it--and he said his girlfriend gave him the technique to use but that all the sentences were his. He also was set, primed, to show me notes that would prove that it was genuinely his own work. What that proved to me was that his girlfriend not only wrote his essay for him but knew he'd be questioned about plagiarism so prepped him to beat the rap. I did say that if he's capable of that kind of thinking in his essays, his notes should be infinitely better than the summary, summary, summary he's been submitting--or even the slightly better than summary that he submitted after we talked about the fact that spending ten hours summarizing wouldn't get him a passing grade, but spending two hours actually thinking would.
Well, whatever. His girlfriend will earn a very nice grade in my class, it seems. And I do hope that eventually he will hit the moment in his life when he can't cheat his way out of having to face his inadequacies and doing something about them.
Another student in that class also plagiarized--but he did it the "old-fashioned" way and copied stuff off the internet. Turnitin caught him handily. That same student also plagiarized one of his homework assignments, as did another student in that class. Easier to cheat than to admit the struggle and deal with it--until those zero grades wreck one's chance of passing the class.
Let's see...
I wrote up the observation I did last week. Check.
I got a very nicely diplomatic email from a student who wanted a letter of recommendation--a request I'd rather blissfully forgotten. I quickly wrote a letter for her as well. Check.
I organized the enormous stacks of stuff for the 101s--and was more than a little peeved to see that a number of the students didn't submit what I told them (out loud and in writing) they needed to submit. (Not very satisfied sigh, more resigned disappointment.)
I copied the rubric I'll use to mark those essays.
The essays are in my weekend tote bag, ready to schlep home. And I'm ready to schlep home. I'd hoped to practice the fiddle tonight, but I'll be getting home too late for that. Hardly any practice this week, dammit. Maybe I can practice twice tomorrow. We'll see.
And around and between everything else I have going on over the weekend, grading, grading, grading.
When can I retire?
**satisfied sigh**
I did manage to get the essays returned to the students in the SF class (though I finished up the last of them at the start of class). I still have a little homework from them that I need to go through, but that can wait until after I turn my attention back to the 101s for a while. Several of the essays were quite good. Several were disappointing. I mentioned to one student that I very much want him to revise, as I know he can do better, and he said he knew it too: he knew he hadn't given himself enough time to do his best work. Glad he knows it. Interestingly, the Budding Literary Critic's essay was not only riddled with sentence-level errors, it was problematic in terms of the logic and support for his argument. He relied a lot on appeals to the emotions--which he tends to do in class discussion as well; I'm perpetually trying to bring him to a more measured, analytical stance. I thought he might be able to rein it in for his essay, but I think he's used to being able to get away with a lot because he is so clearly intelligent. I hope he revises, too--and I hope he comes to see me for guidance before he does.
And one student I know did not write his essay. I talked to him after class about it--and he said his girlfriend gave him the technique to use but that all the sentences were his. He also was set, primed, to show me notes that would prove that it was genuinely his own work. What that proved to me was that his girlfriend not only wrote his essay for him but knew he'd be questioned about plagiarism so prepped him to beat the rap. I did say that if he's capable of that kind of thinking in his essays, his notes should be infinitely better than the summary, summary, summary he's been submitting--or even the slightly better than summary that he submitted after we talked about the fact that spending ten hours summarizing wouldn't get him a passing grade, but spending two hours actually thinking would.
Well, whatever. His girlfriend will earn a very nice grade in my class, it seems. And I do hope that eventually he will hit the moment in his life when he can't cheat his way out of having to face his inadequacies and doing something about them.
Another student in that class also plagiarized--but he did it the "old-fashioned" way and copied stuff off the internet. Turnitin caught him handily. That same student also plagiarized one of his homework assignments, as did another student in that class. Easier to cheat than to admit the struggle and deal with it--until those zero grades wreck one's chance of passing the class.
Let's see...
I wrote up the observation I did last week. Check.
I got a very nicely diplomatic email from a student who wanted a letter of recommendation--a request I'd rather blissfully forgotten. I quickly wrote a letter for her as well. Check.
I organized the enormous stacks of stuff for the 101s--and was more than a little peeved to see that a number of the students didn't submit what I told them (out loud and in writing) they needed to submit. (Not very satisfied sigh, more resigned disappointment.)
I copied the rubric I'll use to mark those essays.
The essays are in my weekend tote bag, ready to schlep home. And I'm ready to schlep home. I'd hoped to practice the fiddle tonight, but I'll be getting home too late for that. Hardly any practice this week, dammit. Maybe I can practice twice tomorrow. We'll see.
And around and between everything else I have going on over the weekend, grading, grading, grading.
When can I retire?
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Pulling out of the nose dive...
Wow, yesterday's post was one hell of a bummer, wasn't it. I'm better now. ("I think I'll take a walk." (Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference))
Both classes went well today--the later class despite being interrupted by a seemingly interminable fire drill. It meant a rather truncated experience for everyone, but we got through what I wanted to get through. I was on the tippy edge of canceling class not long before I went over, but Paul helped me remember that, once I'm there, I usually get a good burst of energy, which is indeed what happened.
The biggest triumph of the day happened in that 5:00 class, in fact. Two--count 'em: two!--students who have been noticeably silent in class discussion to this point volunteered answers or to read aloud from a handout for the class. One of them volunteered several times, in fact. I think I mentioned him before: initially, my read of him was not very positive, but I've been proven tremendously wrong. He is, in fact, quite bright: I now have a sense that his educational experiences haven't been very positive up to this point, but he's starting to catch fire, which is great. He's the one who surprised me with his smile in our conference on his first essay: a charming, John Lennon-type smile.
There was another nice moment after class; it kept me there longer than I wanted to be, but it was worth it. One student is extremely diligent but much too reliant on following exactly and only what he's told to do, not really bringing any thought to his work, just slavishly following the exact letter of the prompts. We talked for a long while after class, and I encouraged him to loosen up, experiment, risk some failure. He asked if it was OK to take risks and fail, and I assured him that it absolutely is: in fact, I'd prefer it to the rather robotic work I've gotten from him so far. I know it will be scary and difficult for him to let go and take risks, but I hope he does. Mostly, it felt great to let him know that professors actually want that. We're much more interested in creativity and innovation than in rote following of the rules. Jump off the edge, little bird: test those wings.
I also had a nice, long conversation with a colleague outside the building on my way back to the office. It's just good to be reminded that I really do work with great people. I know that, of course, and am grateful, but it's good to have the spotlight on it every now and then.
On the down side, I got virtually nothing graded today--and I've now managed to crank up the pressure on myself to pretty intense levels. I'm not entirely sure yet whether I will be taking Wednesday off after all--the workshop I'm supposed to attend hasn't been officially confirmed, and if it moves to a different date, I want to still have the option to call in Paul (or someone) to sub for me, an option I don't want to abuse too much. But if I do go to the workshop on Wednesday, I really do want to get essays back to the 101 students on Monday--and I still haven't finished marking the essays for the SF class.
So, like it or not, that's a 6 a.m. alarm tomorrow, so I can get to campus by 9, and get a good lick of work in before attending an assessment event (which we're all rather dreading at this point, not sure what onerous, screwed up initiative might be coming at us). I go straight from the assessment thingy to class, so I need to be rolled up and ready to return work to the SF students before 11:30 tomorrow morning.
Once I'm back in the office after class, I can start whacking at the ridiculously tall stack of 101 assignments that I need to get through--though I will have to interrupt myself at a little before 6 to conduct an observation. And after the observation, I'll be not just toast but burnt toast, so ... well, you see the direction this is heading.
Speaking of observations: I need to be more circumspect about speaking of observations in this blog. I forget that some of my readers are also my colleagues, and I need to maintain more confidentiality about P&B business. So, my remarks about P&B and observations--or any other P&B related business--will be very generic. And my apologies to anyone whose confidentiality has been breached because I was clinging a little too fiercely to my first amendment rights. I can still say everything I really want/need to say while maintaining more appropriate boundaries when it comes to P&B business.
That said, it's now much later than I expected to be here tonight (especially after as little sleep as I got last night), so I'm going to dodder off to my car and head home. And tomorrow is not only another day, it's Thursday. It won't be the end of my work week by any stretch of the imagination, but it's the end of the on-campus part of my week, and that's a lovely thing to contemplate.
Both classes went well today--the later class despite being interrupted by a seemingly interminable fire drill. It meant a rather truncated experience for everyone, but we got through what I wanted to get through. I was on the tippy edge of canceling class not long before I went over, but Paul helped me remember that, once I'm there, I usually get a good burst of energy, which is indeed what happened.
The biggest triumph of the day happened in that 5:00 class, in fact. Two--count 'em: two!--students who have been noticeably silent in class discussion to this point volunteered answers or to read aloud from a handout for the class. One of them volunteered several times, in fact. I think I mentioned him before: initially, my read of him was not very positive, but I've been proven tremendously wrong. He is, in fact, quite bright: I now have a sense that his educational experiences haven't been very positive up to this point, but he's starting to catch fire, which is great. He's the one who surprised me with his smile in our conference on his first essay: a charming, John Lennon-type smile.
There was another nice moment after class; it kept me there longer than I wanted to be, but it was worth it. One student is extremely diligent but much too reliant on following exactly and only what he's told to do, not really bringing any thought to his work, just slavishly following the exact letter of the prompts. We talked for a long while after class, and I encouraged him to loosen up, experiment, risk some failure. He asked if it was OK to take risks and fail, and I assured him that it absolutely is: in fact, I'd prefer it to the rather robotic work I've gotten from him so far. I know it will be scary and difficult for him to let go and take risks, but I hope he does. Mostly, it felt great to let him know that professors actually want that. We're much more interested in creativity and innovation than in rote following of the rules. Jump off the edge, little bird: test those wings.
I also had a nice, long conversation with a colleague outside the building on my way back to the office. It's just good to be reminded that I really do work with great people. I know that, of course, and am grateful, but it's good to have the spotlight on it every now and then.
On the down side, I got virtually nothing graded today--and I've now managed to crank up the pressure on myself to pretty intense levels. I'm not entirely sure yet whether I will be taking Wednesday off after all--the workshop I'm supposed to attend hasn't been officially confirmed, and if it moves to a different date, I want to still have the option to call in Paul (or someone) to sub for me, an option I don't want to abuse too much. But if I do go to the workshop on Wednesday, I really do want to get essays back to the 101 students on Monday--and I still haven't finished marking the essays for the SF class.
So, like it or not, that's a 6 a.m. alarm tomorrow, so I can get to campus by 9, and get a good lick of work in before attending an assessment event (which we're all rather dreading at this point, not sure what onerous, screwed up initiative might be coming at us). I go straight from the assessment thingy to class, so I need to be rolled up and ready to return work to the SF students before 11:30 tomorrow morning.
Once I'm back in the office after class, I can start whacking at the ridiculously tall stack of 101 assignments that I need to get through--though I will have to interrupt myself at a little before 6 to conduct an observation. And after the observation, I'll be not just toast but burnt toast, so ... well, you see the direction this is heading.
Speaking of observations: I need to be more circumspect about speaking of observations in this blog. I forget that some of my readers are also my colleagues, and I need to maintain more confidentiality about P&B business. So, my remarks about P&B and observations--or any other P&B related business--will be very generic. And my apologies to anyone whose confidentiality has been breached because I was clinging a little too fiercely to my first amendment rights. I can still say everything I really want/need to say while maintaining more appropriate boundaries when it comes to P&B business.
That said, it's now much later than I expected to be here tonight (especially after as little sleep as I got last night), so I'm going to dodder off to my car and head home. And tomorrow is not only another day, it's Thursday. It won't be the end of my work week by any stretch of the imagination, but it's the end of the on-campus part of my week, and that's a lovely thing to contemplate.
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Another non-post post.
I feel like every level of my life is falling apart right now. I'm going home, and I don't know when/if I'll get more work done or have anything productive to say in the blog. Forgive me, dear readers, if I vanish for a bit. I'm just under the sofa.
Monday, October 16, 2017
Going for the World Cup in Procrastination
Well, my mouse plans have again gone agly: I marked I think three of the essays from the SF class and did not, after all, do any marking of discussion boards on Sunday. As I started to write this post, however, I thought, "Oh, for God's sake, Prof. P: do the discussion boards."
So I did that. And I did mark a few assignments in Advisement. But the enormous, teetering piles of stuff I have yet to address are growing every day--and so far, nothing much has been getting returned.
But this is what "tomorrow" is for, right? I spent most of my break (e.g., office hour) between classes talking with Paul about topics various and sundry--brushing only briefly against the amount of work I'm putting off doing--and now it's late enough that I want to get home. Which means, despite my desire to sleep endlessly, an early alarm tomorrow, so I can make a little proverbial hay before class--and hope that, despite the alarm, I have enough energy after class (and P&B) to crank through some more before collapsing for the day.
I did gain a teeny bit of time tomorrow: the Drama Queen student has yet another life crisis, so I'm encouraging her to withdraw. I actually feel a bit bad about calling her that: if she really is going through what she says she is, her life is truly hell, and I would hate to think she wasn't getting support and encouragement in a dreadful time. My communications have, in fact, been supportive--albeit somewhat chilly in the advice (no "you can do it" pep talks but "yes, it's time to quit" cold dose of reality). But I don't think she'll be showing up for her mentoring appointment--or if she does, it should only be long enough for me to sign the withdrawal form.
I grant you, that 30 minutes isn't a lot of time to put to any good use, but as long as I'll be in the office anyway, I'll try to make the best I can of it.
Now, however, I'm going home. I was saying to Paul earlier that I'm in practically complete and total "hide under the sofa" mode: I'll curl up here with the dust bunnies and hope everyone and everything just goes away and leaves me alone. If I could, I'd tender my resignation effective immediately, pack a U-Haul, and head for the (literal or metaphoric) hills. That not being a viable option for a bunch of reasons, I will at least concede defeat for today--and pull the Scarlett O'Hara number. (I wonder if Scarlett ever considered hiding under the sofa? It works for my cat...)
So I did that. And I did mark a few assignments in Advisement. But the enormous, teetering piles of stuff I have yet to address are growing every day--and so far, nothing much has been getting returned.
But this is what "tomorrow" is for, right? I spent most of my break (e.g., office hour) between classes talking with Paul about topics various and sundry--brushing only briefly against the amount of work I'm putting off doing--and now it's late enough that I want to get home. Which means, despite my desire to sleep endlessly, an early alarm tomorrow, so I can make a little proverbial hay before class--and hope that, despite the alarm, I have enough energy after class (and P&B) to crank through some more before collapsing for the day.
I did gain a teeny bit of time tomorrow: the Drama Queen student has yet another life crisis, so I'm encouraging her to withdraw. I actually feel a bit bad about calling her that: if she really is going through what she says she is, her life is truly hell, and I would hate to think she wasn't getting support and encouragement in a dreadful time. My communications have, in fact, been supportive--albeit somewhat chilly in the advice (no "you can do it" pep talks but "yes, it's time to quit" cold dose of reality). But I don't think she'll be showing up for her mentoring appointment--or if she does, it should only be long enough for me to sign the withdrawal form.
I grant you, that 30 minutes isn't a lot of time to put to any good use, but as long as I'll be in the office anyway, I'll try to make the best I can of it.
Now, however, I'm going home. I was saying to Paul earlier that I'm in practically complete and total "hide under the sofa" mode: I'll curl up here with the dust bunnies and hope everyone and everything just goes away and leaves me alone. If I could, I'd tender my resignation effective immediately, pack a U-Haul, and head for the (literal or metaphoric) hills. That not being a viable option for a bunch of reasons, I will at least concede defeat for today--and pull the Scarlett O'Hara number. (I wonder if Scarlett ever considered hiding under the sofa? It works for my cat...)
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Posting from home
I had an opportunity to get out of the office early today, and although I could conceivably have stayed and gotten more work done (or at least more sorting of work into stacks), I decided that it would be a lovely treat to get home while it's still light out.
So, here I am. The observation with the adjunct was ... interesting. I won't say more about it. But one of her students did want to talk with me after, to express some concerns--and, I think, just to feel he had a connection with someone in a position of at least a little authority.
But a much better student encounter was before class. I didn't see the student I thought I might see (and I don't think I missed him, even though I got to the office much later than I anticipated), but I saw a student from the earlier 101. His face reminds me a bit of one of my nephews, which is interesting, but he came in--obviously having sprinted across campus--to ask me how much trouble he'd be in because his upload to Turnitin was late. Apparently he tried to submit a number of times last night, unsuccessfully, but finally tried again once on campus and was successful. Under the circumstances, I told him, I wouldn't take the penalty. He was greatly relieved by that--and he told me that just finishing the essay felt like an enormous relief. He is also concerned about the low marks on his discussion board posts, so we talked about how he could improve those--and then we just started talking, about what other courses he's taking, about his ambitions. He wants to be a marine biologist, specifically to study sharks. Very cool. I did tell him he'd be doing a lot of writing as part of that--and that the next essay will use APA style, which is what he'll use most often in the sciences. But it was great just to chat with him for a bit.
I love those one-on-ones. I know I say that a lot, but it's true. They're great.
Today's class, talking about the beginning of Oryx and Crake, was great, too. The Budding Literary Critic was there but not as aggressive and borderline snotty as he can be; in fact, he was uncharacteristically quiet, but when he did contribute, what he had to say was very intelligent (as it usually is) and perceptive. Just about everyone was coming up with good points to share, interesting ideas--and they inspired me to riff a little more, go a little further, than I normally would, in terms of bringing in some of the wider contexts. Not quite theory--though they've had an introduction to that from the Budding Literary Critic and the (now withdrawn) Sometimes Snotty Student--but a sense of what some of the more common themes are in SF generally. We talked about post-apocalyptic narratives, about dystopias, utopias, and eutopias, about SF as social commentary...
When they get rolling, they really are great. I know whatever high I feel from being in class with them will be brought crashing down when I start grading their essays, but, well, I'm sort of used to that.
And their essays (and reading notes that I've collected) were what I chose to bring home to work on this weekend. It might have made more sense to work on the essays for the 101s, as they will embark on their second essays before the SF students do, but the stack of stuff for the SF students was just not as unwieldy. When I collect final versions from the 101s, they come freighted with all the previous versions and various other bits, so they look a great deal more daunting than they are.
Oh, yeah: and I brought home the discussion board tracker, too. I've decided that Sunday afternoons will be my dedicated time to work on discussion boards (except in those weeks when I'm frantically turning around essays prior to conferences). I want to establish some habits for when I'm teaching entirely online--assuming I do teach Nature in Lit online in the spring. (Long story of SNAFUs there, which I won't get into now: it's too depressing, and I'm too tired.)
I think that's about all I've got for now. I will be leaving when my house-cleaner arrives, so the only question at the moment is whether to practice fiddle for a bit or just fiddle around. The former, I think, in the "get it done now and then you don't have to worry about it" plan.
And tomorrow, as we all know all too well, is another day.
So, here I am. The observation with the adjunct was ... interesting. I won't say more about it. But one of her students did want to talk with me after, to express some concerns--and, I think, just to feel he had a connection with someone in a position of at least a little authority.
But a much better student encounter was before class. I didn't see the student I thought I might see (and I don't think I missed him, even though I got to the office much later than I anticipated), but I saw a student from the earlier 101. His face reminds me a bit of one of my nephews, which is interesting, but he came in--obviously having sprinted across campus--to ask me how much trouble he'd be in because his upload to Turnitin was late. Apparently he tried to submit a number of times last night, unsuccessfully, but finally tried again once on campus and was successful. Under the circumstances, I told him, I wouldn't take the penalty. He was greatly relieved by that--and he told me that just finishing the essay felt like an enormous relief. He is also concerned about the low marks on his discussion board posts, so we talked about how he could improve those--and then we just started talking, about what other courses he's taking, about his ambitions. He wants to be a marine biologist, specifically to study sharks. Very cool. I did tell him he'd be doing a lot of writing as part of that--and that the next essay will use APA style, which is what he'll use most often in the sciences. But it was great just to chat with him for a bit.
I love those one-on-ones. I know I say that a lot, but it's true. They're great.
Today's class, talking about the beginning of Oryx and Crake, was great, too. The Budding Literary Critic was there but not as aggressive and borderline snotty as he can be; in fact, he was uncharacteristically quiet, but when he did contribute, what he had to say was very intelligent (as it usually is) and perceptive. Just about everyone was coming up with good points to share, interesting ideas--and they inspired me to riff a little more, go a little further, than I normally would, in terms of bringing in some of the wider contexts. Not quite theory--though they've had an introduction to that from the Budding Literary Critic and the (now withdrawn) Sometimes Snotty Student--but a sense of what some of the more common themes are in SF generally. We talked about post-apocalyptic narratives, about dystopias, utopias, and eutopias, about SF as social commentary...
When they get rolling, they really are great. I know whatever high I feel from being in class with them will be brought crashing down when I start grading their essays, but, well, I'm sort of used to that.
And their essays (and reading notes that I've collected) were what I chose to bring home to work on this weekend. It might have made more sense to work on the essays for the 101s, as they will embark on their second essays before the SF students do, but the stack of stuff for the SF students was just not as unwieldy. When I collect final versions from the 101s, they come freighted with all the previous versions and various other bits, so they look a great deal more daunting than they are.
Oh, yeah: and I brought home the discussion board tracker, too. I've decided that Sunday afternoons will be my dedicated time to work on discussion boards (except in those weeks when I'm frantically turning around essays prior to conferences). I want to establish some habits for when I'm teaching entirely online--assuming I do teach Nature in Lit online in the spring. (Long story of SNAFUs there, which I won't get into now: it's too depressing, and I'm too tired.)
I think that's about all I've got for now. I will be leaving when my house-cleaner arrives, so the only question at the moment is whether to practice fiddle for a bit or just fiddle around. The former, I think, in the "get it done now and then you don't have to worry about it" plan.
And tomorrow, as we all know all too well, is another day.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Not my best thing...
OK, I admit it. Those of you who know me personally already know this, but patience is not my best thing. I can, in some circumstances, be endlessly patient--to the point that I surprise the hell out of myself. But most of the time, garden variety circumstances, my patience tanks hold about a pint of patience, after which they run dry and what comes out instead is almost teeth-gritted annoyance.
In my own defense, however, I have to say that the situation that taxed my patience today would probably have been vexing even for someone with much bigger patience reservoirs than mine.
Student in the SF class. I don't know anything about his background, or what his situation is now, except that he's not seeking a degree here; he's just taking every literature class that catches his eye. I may have mentioned him before: he's a little older than the usual student; if he were a decade or two older I'd think of him as a cast-iron hippie--but I also wonder if he was ever in the military because his behavior has all the hallmarks of TBI: traumatic brain injury. I've had students with TBI before, and it's extremely difficult to deal with. Classic symptoms include difficulty concentrating or processing information, memory problems, and emotional disturbances or irritability. In the case of this student, the "emotional disturbances" are more along the lines of difficulty with impulse control and--ironically, in this circumstance--impatience. (He also is a heavy smoker, so he comes to class reeking of it, and it's a smell I have a very hard time with: gives me headaches.) But I've explained to him at least three times what he has to do to successfully upload his essay to Turnitin, and he cannot get it. He says he's "bad with computers"--and today I finally had to say that he won't be able to get along very well if he doesn't develop a better relationship with them than he has. I feel for him: I know his behaviors are not under his control in a lot of ways. But God, I find it frustrating in the extreme, and today, I very nearly snapped--in the "I am not going to do this for you; you have to get help from the kind of people whose job it is to help you with this stuff" kind of snap.
Sigh. Well, anyway.
Today, two students withdrew from the class. One had missed six classes (out of ten class meetings); the other was the smart but sometimes snotty young man. I will miss the smarts of the occasionally snotty student--but there's still enough intellectual wattage in the room to make the class work well enough, I think.
I hope so, at any rate. I've asked Scott to sub for me on the 26th, and he agreed, though he doesn't usually sub. We've had some interesting conversations about Oryx and Crake, which is what the students will be working on, so I'll be curious to see what he manages to get out of them on the day.
For now, however, I am astonished to relate that I think I'm actually ready to leave for the evening. It is dark, but that's more about the season of the year than about my being here late. I'm sure as I'm driving home, I'll think "Oh, I meant to say something about that in the blog." But so be it. I have not only run out of patience, I've effectively run out of operational intelligence for the evening. I get to go home and make horrible noises on a fiddle instead of fiddling around here any more tonight. And we will see what the morrow brings.
In my own defense, however, I have to say that the situation that taxed my patience today would probably have been vexing even for someone with much bigger patience reservoirs than mine.
Student in the SF class. I don't know anything about his background, or what his situation is now, except that he's not seeking a degree here; he's just taking every literature class that catches his eye. I may have mentioned him before: he's a little older than the usual student; if he were a decade or two older I'd think of him as a cast-iron hippie--but I also wonder if he was ever in the military because his behavior has all the hallmarks of TBI: traumatic brain injury. I've had students with TBI before, and it's extremely difficult to deal with. Classic symptoms include difficulty concentrating or processing information, memory problems, and emotional disturbances or irritability. In the case of this student, the "emotional disturbances" are more along the lines of difficulty with impulse control and--ironically, in this circumstance--impatience. (He also is a heavy smoker, so he comes to class reeking of it, and it's a smell I have a very hard time with: gives me headaches.) But I've explained to him at least three times what he has to do to successfully upload his essay to Turnitin, and he cannot get it. He says he's "bad with computers"--and today I finally had to say that he won't be able to get along very well if he doesn't develop a better relationship with them than he has. I feel for him: I know his behaviors are not under his control in a lot of ways. But God, I find it frustrating in the extreme, and today, I very nearly snapped--in the "I am not going to do this for you; you have to get help from the kind of people whose job it is to help you with this stuff" kind of snap.
Sigh. Well, anyway.
Today, two students withdrew from the class. One had missed six classes (out of ten class meetings); the other was the smart but sometimes snotty young man. I will miss the smarts of the occasionally snotty student--but there's still enough intellectual wattage in the room to make the class work well enough, I think.
I hope so, at any rate. I've asked Scott to sub for me on the 26th, and he agreed, though he doesn't usually sub. We've had some interesting conversations about Oryx and Crake, which is what the students will be working on, so I'll be curious to see what he manages to get out of them on the day.
For now, however, I am astonished to relate that I think I'm actually ready to leave for the evening. It is dark, but that's more about the season of the year than about my being here late. I'm sure as I'm driving home, I'll think "Oh, I meant to say something about that in the blog." But so be it. I have not only run out of patience, I've effectively run out of operational intelligence for the evening. I get to go home and make horrible noises on a fiddle instead of fiddling around here any more tonight. And we will see what the morrow brings.
Monday, October 9, 2017
That sinking feeling/that better feeling
That sinking feeling when one realizes somehow one has not marked (or even seen printouts of) four essays for the class one is about to teach in an hour.
That better feeling when one manages--by severely truncating the amount of commenting--to get through somewhere between eight and ten essays marked in 75 minutes, so everything could be returned to students on time.
Another sinking feeling: when one begins to think one might be being snowed by a student one likes very much (one of the veterans: he's had just one too many things going on, so either his life is really an utter train wreck right now--which is possible--or he's putting one over).
A slightly different feeling--mild annoyance perhaps?--when one has frantically marked two student essays only to have the students decide to withdraw from the class. (Or the student didn't show up for class, in another case or two.)
Well, there it is: the sink and bob to the surface of life in the (apparently flooded, given the metaphor) trenches.
I kept meaning to post to the blog as I was trying--mostly unsuccessfully--to grind through marking essays this weekend. I did a very good stint yesterday, but Friday and Saturday, I ended up feeling almost woozy with fatigue and in desperate need of a nap. The napping was great, but it did cut into the grading time.
But I got 'em done. I still have a smallish mountain of stuff to whack through and get back to students ASAP--and I'm going to collect the first essay from the SF students tomorrow (o frabjous day!), so as is typical for this time of semester, the work is pretty much constant high waves interspersed with the occasional tsunami.
I also spent some time this weekend completely redoing the assignment schedule for the 101s. I realized that I'd only allowed two weeks between the final version of the first essay and the first version of the second essay, which is insane, not only for the students but for me. I grant, it did give us a nice amount of time to do a ton of reading for the final essay, but I decided I should even things out a little.
The added bonus cherry on top is that in doing so, I also managed to avoid having to grade a mountain of essays over my birthday weekend. Who's just so smart?
And I figured out a much easier way to explain the correct use of apostrophes in possessives than the lesson I used to give. I recognize that language and rules of punctuation change over time, but it was interesting that the students said, "I've never seen that before. I mean, I've seen it used, but no one ever taught it before." Yeah, well, now you know: singular possessive = 's; plural possessive--if the possessive is formed by adding an -s (or -es, or changing y to -ies) ending = s'; plural possessive when the word itself changes (thanks to the holdovers from old English) = 's. Who knew? (I did. And most of my colleagues. But I may be the only one who's bugged enough by it to teach it.)
And I'm kinda too tired to say much more tonight. I have to be in Advisement at 9:30 tomorrow morning, making up time that I gave up to conferences. So, I'd better stagger off home--and leave the office to the workers who are coming in to fix the alarm system...
That better feeling when one manages--by severely truncating the amount of commenting--to get through somewhere between eight and ten essays marked in 75 minutes, so everything could be returned to students on time.
Another sinking feeling: when one begins to think one might be being snowed by a student one likes very much (one of the veterans: he's had just one too many things going on, so either his life is really an utter train wreck right now--which is possible--or he's putting one over).
A slightly different feeling--mild annoyance perhaps?--when one has frantically marked two student essays only to have the students decide to withdraw from the class. (Or the student didn't show up for class, in another case or two.)
Well, there it is: the sink and bob to the surface of life in the (apparently flooded, given the metaphor) trenches.
I kept meaning to post to the blog as I was trying--mostly unsuccessfully--to grind through marking essays this weekend. I did a very good stint yesterday, but Friday and Saturday, I ended up feeling almost woozy with fatigue and in desperate need of a nap. The napping was great, but it did cut into the grading time.
But I got 'em done. I still have a smallish mountain of stuff to whack through and get back to students ASAP--and I'm going to collect the first essay from the SF students tomorrow (o frabjous day!), so as is typical for this time of semester, the work is pretty much constant high waves interspersed with the occasional tsunami.
I also spent some time this weekend completely redoing the assignment schedule for the 101s. I realized that I'd only allowed two weeks between the final version of the first essay and the first version of the second essay, which is insane, not only for the students but for me. I grant, it did give us a nice amount of time to do a ton of reading for the final essay, but I decided I should even things out a little.
The added bonus cherry on top is that in doing so, I also managed to avoid having to grade a mountain of essays over my birthday weekend. Who's just so smart?
And I figured out a much easier way to explain the correct use of apostrophes in possessives than the lesson I used to give. I recognize that language and rules of punctuation change over time, but it was interesting that the students said, "I've never seen that before. I mean, I've seen it used, but no one ever taught it before." Yeah, well, now you know: singular possessive = 's; plural possessive--if the possessive is formed by adding an -s (or -es, or changing y to -ies) ending = s'; plural possessive when the word itself changes (thanks to the holdovers from old English) = 's. Who knew? (I did. And most of my colleagues. But I may be the only one who's bugged enough by it to teach it.)
And I'm kinda too tired to say much more tonight. I have to be in Advisement at 9:30 tomorrow morning, making up time that I gave up to conferences. So, I'd better stagger off home--and leave the office to the workers who are coming in to fix the alarm system...
Thursday, October 5, 2017
"I have a question: If you have an appointment with a professor who has a Ph.D., is it a conference or is it a doctor's appointment?"
I laughed out loud. That was where one of my best students ended his conference with me. He's ultra-super bright (can't write very well, but the rest is wonderful) and he's yet another military veteran with an actual adult life. It was great to end my week on that note.
The two veterans I have as students this semester--one in each class--have very similar affect: sense of humor, confidence, dedication to their work. Interestingly enough, they're both also fire fighters. Maybe that contributes as well (and come to think of it, they both have qualities that are somewhat like one of my nephews, who is also a fire fighter though not a military vet).
I'm happy to report that having the good student at the end of the day managed to remove the twitchy anger I felt after meeting with the Media Mogul. I asked how I could help--with his revision of his essay--and he made a snarky comment about all the articles he has to write for the student paper. He didn't really listen to or give a half of a shit about any of my feedback. He gives a lot of "gotcha, gotcha" head nodding and it's utterly obvious that everything is just bouncing off the surface. I hate to say it, but part of me is actively looking for the infraction I can use to boot him from the class. He gets on my nerves. That overweening confidence is guaranteed to raise my hackles. I try to maintain a calm and professional demeanor around him, but all I want to say is "Get the fuck out of my face, you obnoxious little shit."
And then a young man walks in who is worth 50 of the Media Mogul, infinitely more intelligent and articulate--and he not only is prepared with specific things he wants me to explain, he is very humble about his abilities.
At the end of class today, I talked with a couple of students about the essay topics, formatting, submitting to Turnitin--and one stayed even longer after class because he's been slaving over his reading notes and getting marks that are below passing. He spent 10-1/2 hours on one set--but it was all, all, summary. He said, almost wailing, "But I'm including more quotations!" Yes, but you don't do anything with them except summarize. I asked him how much benefit he would gain for his forthcoming essay from reviewing his notes. He conceded that he wouldn't get any. Ah: there you go then. So I've suggested that he make an appointment with me so we can sit down and talk in detail about notes--and I've made an agreement with him that if his notes improve, I'll give the same marks to his earlier summaries that I give to the notes that actually do what they're supposed to do.
He was one of two students to be upset about getting low marks on notes no matter how long they were--and both were summarizing. I know what I'm asking isn't easy. That's part of why I'm asking it.
In the "more good news" department (or perhaps the "be grateful for small favors" department), I did have just enough time between appointments to mark all the homework I'd collected from the SF class (prior to today's), so I could return that (whew), and to get all the various assignments from the 101s organized into "need immediate attention" and "can wait" stacks. I still need to make sure I have the handout I need for Monday already placed my wheelie pack, and I have a tsunami of work to try to paddle through over the weekend, but it's organized, which feels much better than having things strewn all over the map.
I just took a minute, too, to complete my record keeping of all the appointments. That feels good to have done. And now, I'm going to water the plants, put the needed handouts in my pack for Monday, and head off--while it's still light outside. My "evening supervisor" hours have been truncated (as I'm getting paid for fewer of them: this is the second time my hours have been reduced); I am sorry not to get the extra money, but getting to leave earlier is some compensation.
The two veterans I have as students this semester--one in each class--have very similar affect: sense of humor, confidence, dedication to their work. Interestingly enough, they're both also fire fighters. Maybe that contributes as well (and come to think of it, they both have qualities that are somewhat like one of my nephews, who is also a fire fighter though not a military vet).
I'm happy to report that having the good student at the end of the day managed to remove the twitchy anger I felt after meeting with the Media Mogul. I asked how I could help--with his revision of his essay--and he made a snarky comment about all the articles he has to write for the student paper. He didn't really listen to or give a half of a shit about any of my feedback. He gives a lot of "gotcha, gotcha" head nodding and it's utterly obvious that everything is just bouncing off the surface. I hate to say it, but part of me is actively looking for the infraction I can use to boot him from the class. He gets on my nerves. That overweening confidence is guaranteed to raise my hackles. I try to maintain a calm and professional demeanor around him, but all I want to say is "Get the fuck out of my face, you obnoxious little shit."
And then a young man walks in who is worth 50 of the Media Mogul, infinitely more intelligent and articulate--and he not only is prepared with specific things he wants me to explain, he is very humble about his abilities.
At the end of class today, I talked with a couple of students about the essay topics, formatting, submitting to Turnitin--and one stayed even longer after class because he's been slaving over his reading notes and getting marks that are below passing. He spent 10-1/2 hours on one set--but it was all, all, summary. He said, almost wailing, "But I'm including more quotations!" Yes, but you don't do anything with them except summarize. I asked him how much benefit he would gain for his forthcoming essay from reviewing his notes. He conceded that he wouldn't get any. Ah: there you go then. So I've suggested that he make an appointment with me so we can sit down and talk in detail about notes--and I've made an agreement with him that if his notes improve, I'll give the same marks to his earlier summaries that I give to the notes that actually do what they're supposed to do.
He was one of two students to be upset about getting low marks on notes no matter how long they were--and both were summarizing. I know what I'm asking isn't easy. That's part of why I'm asking it.
In the "more good news" department (or perhaps the "be grateful for small favors" department), I did have just enough time between appointments to mark all the homework I'd collected from the SF class (prior to today's), so I could return that (whew), and to get all the various assignments from the 101s organized into "need immediate attention" and "can wait" stacks. I still need to make sure I have the handout I need for Monday already placed my wheelie pack, and I have a tsunami of work to try to paddle through over the weekend, but it's organized, which feels much better than having things strewn all over the map.
I just took a minute, too, to complete my record keeping of all the appointments. That feels good to have done. And now, I'm going to water the plants, put the needed handouts in my pack for Monday, and head off--while it's still light outside. My "evening supervisor" hours have been truncated (as I'm getting paid for fewer of them: this is the second time my hours have been reduced); I am sorry not to get the extra money, but getting to leave earlier is some compensation.
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Staggering over the finish line...
I almost didn't manage to squeeze out the last two essays for tomorrow's conferences--especially as a student showed up for conference today, and although I thought she hadn't submitted her essay (one less for me to mark!), not only had she submitted it, I'd confirmed the submission with her and it was in my files. Fortunately she was understanding about it (or was able to fake being understanding, which is close enough for me), and we set up an appointment for tomorrow morning. So that meant that I didn't have three essays to mark, as I originally expected, but seven.
And I still got them all done. According to the little clock on my campus computer, I hit "send" on the last one at 8:01 p.m.
Ye gods and little fishes.
At some points, I'll try to remember to say a little about a student I spoke to today; he's the one who had to call his mother for his password, and our encounter today revealed a nastier side to his personality--not by a lot, just a smidge. And another student who had made almost no impression on me either way in class turns out to be quite bright--and to have a charming smile, which I'd not seen before. These individual conferences are revealing in a lot of ways.
The good news now is, not only do I get to go home before 10 p.m. tonight, and not only do I not have to get up at 4 a.m. tomorrow, I can actually spend some time tomorrow between and around appointments pulling together all the work I need to take home to mark over the weekend, figuring out what I got back from Printing in terms of handouts (and when I need to hand them out) and groovy things like that.
Now, however, after this miniature blog post, I am going to stagger off to my car and carefully drive home. My back has been killing me the last three days from all the time I've spent nailed to this chair; I'm looking forward to walking across campus a time or two tomorrow, just to get some of the kinks out.
I'm sure I'll be bitching over the weekend about how much work I have to do, but none of it is essay grading.
I don't have the energy to sing the "Hi-ho" song, but now, it's home from work I go.
And I still got them all done. According to the little clock on my campus computer, I hit "send" on the last one at 8:01 p.m.
Ye gods and little fishes.
At some points, I'll try to remember to say a little about a student I spoke to today; he's the one who had to call his mother for his password, and our encounter today revealed a nastier side to his personality--not by a lot, just a smidge. And another student who had made almost no impression on me either way in class turns out to be quite bright--and to have a charming smile, which I'd not seen before. These individual conferences are revealing in a lot of ways.
The good news now is, not only do I get to go home before 10 p.m. tonight, and not only do I not have to get up at 4 a.m. tomorrow, I can actually spend some time tomorrow between and around appointments pulling together all the work I need to take home to mark over the weekend, figuring out what I got back from Printing in terms of handouts (and when I need to hand them out) and groovy things like that.
Now, however, after this miniature blog post, I am going to stagger off to my car and carefully drive home. My back has been killing me the last three days from all the time I've spent nailed to this chair; I'm looking forward to walking across campus a time or two tomorrow, just to get some of the kinks out.
I'm sure I'll be bitching over the weekend about how much work I have to do, but none of it is essay grading.
I don't have the energy to sing the "Hi-ho" song, but now, it's home from work I go.
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Painfully tired
Two more essays remain to be graded for tomorrow. I cannot, cannot, cannot squeeze them out tonight. I've gone too short on sleep for too long, and I'm now so tired it hurts.
So, tomorrow, I have those two, which I have to do first thing in the morning, plus six now for Thursday. I missed seeing one that had been submitted on time (wishful thinking, perhaps?) and two came in late--but I'm going to allow them to proceed.
I realized today that I wasn't taking points off for the late submissions. I need to make a record of that for myself and take the points off the final versions for the students who submitted late. I don't quite know what to do about the students who submitted late enough that, at five points per day for each submission (printout and Turnitin upload), the penalties would be more points than the essay would earn.
I do know I'm going to have to scream at the students in the 5:00 section. They're just falling apart at the seams, and the few students who are any good in there are suffering terribly because their classmates are not giving them work to respond to. I had to make an agreement with one student that I'd give her full marks for her discussion boards even if she couldn't respond to two classmates with any substance--because what she had to respond to was so inadequate. I may talk to the five or so students in that class who are worth something and let them know that they can just talk to each other and ignore everyone else on the discussion boards. And I'll try to make sure they end up in groups together as often as possible. They deserve the good experience. The rest of the class, I'm not very interested in coddling.
Shifting gears, back to the essay grading issue: I do realize that since we instituted the ENG100 course (which fulfills the same function as 101 but includes an extra 50-minute lab for more intensive writing work and is used to house the "high fails" on placement tests), generally the writing in 101 classes is a little better than it used to be. There's still a pretty wide range, but the ones on the bottom tier are on a slightly higher rung than was the case before ENG100. I've heard tell that the converse is true of 001, the basic developmental writing course: the students there tend to be worse than they used to be. (One more reason I'm glad I've never taught 001 and don't intend to.)
Shifting gears again: P&B today was partly just grinding through business as usual (getting ready to mentor people for sabbatical and promotion), but at the end, Cathy did talk a bit about how hard it is to accomplish even the most basic, routine tasks because apparently a lot of the administrators either are too dazed and confused to stay on top of their work or are deliberately causing bottle-necks and ignoring requests for solutions to problems. The seminar hours meeting that started the day was similarly grim (and Cathy was venting about some of the same problems, to the point that Scott had to say that he needed to turn the meeting from being a Faculty Anger support group to a seminar hours committee). My tolerance for the bullshit on this campus is rapidly diminishing--and was never very high to begin with. The campus is falling apart--in terms of a lot of the buildings, literally falling apart. Part of me almost hopes we do lose our accreditation and have to shut down, as I would pretty much be forced to retire (though I'd hate for my colleagues to have to suffer the consequences of closure, even if we reopen the next day as a campus of Suffolk CC). Meetings like those really do make me want to flee to the hills (or mountains, actually).
But on the other side, there are the students who want to meet with me weekly for mentoring. There's the Drama Queen (which may be unfair to her, but I'm not sure how else to label her) and there's another young man who told me that he thinks I'm crazy to put what I do into my classes--but who also tells me how much he needs what I have to offer. I don't know enough about his story to give him a moniker yet, but I do look forward to seeing him on a weekly basis. (And it makes my stats look good in terms of the number of seminar hours I book.)
But now, it's getting late--again--and I desperately need to get home and wind down. I don't want to look ahead at all, as while I'm grinding out all the essays I'm marking now, other homework is piling up and needs to be tended too. It will be another weekend of immersion in student work. No brain breaks on the horizon for this battered professor. Battered and fried. (Oh, food: there's an idea!)
More tomorrow, if I survive the night.
So, tomorrow, I have those two, which I have to do first thing in the morning, plus six now for Thursday. I missed seeing one that had been submitted on time (wishful thinking, perhaps?) and two came in late--but I'm going to allow them to proceed.
I realized today that I wasn't taking points off for the late submissions. I need to make a record of that for myself and take the points off the final versions for the students who submitted late. I don't quite know what to do about the students who submitted late enough that, at five points per day for each submission (printout and Turnitin upload), the penalties would be more points than the essay would earn.
I do know I'm going to have to scream at the students in the 5:00 section. They're just falling apart at the seams, and the few students who are any good in there are suffering terribly because their classmates are not giving them work to respond to. I had to make an agreement with one student that I'd give her full marks for her discussion boards even if she couldn't respond to two classmates with any substance--because what she had to respond to was so inadequate. I may talk to the five or so students in that class who are worth something and let them know that they can just talk to each other and ignore everyone else on the discussion boards. And I'll try to make sure they end up in groups together as often as possible. They deserve the good experience. The rest of the class, I'm not very interested in coddling.
Shifting gears, back to the essay grading issue: I do realize that since we instituted the ENG100 course (which fulfills the same function as 101 but includes an extra 50-minute lab for more intensive writing work and is used to house the "high fails" on placement tests), generally the writing in 101 classes is a little better than it used to be. There's still a pretty wide range, but the ones on the bottom tier are on a slightly higher rung than was the case before ENG100. I've heard tell that the converse is true of 001, the basic developmental writing course: the students there tend to be worse than they used to be. (One more reason I'm glad I've never taught 001 and don't intend to.)
Shifting gears again: P&B today was partly just grinding through business as usual (getting ready to mentor people for sabbatical and promotion), but at the end, Cathy did talk a bit about how hard it is to accomplish even the most basic, routine tasks because apparently a lot of the administrators either are too dazed and confused to stay on top of their work or are deliberately causing bottle-necks and ignoring requests for solutions to problems. The seminar hours meeting that started the day was similarly grim (and Cathy was venting about some of the same problems, to the point that Scott had to say that he needed to turn the meeting from being a Faculty Anger support group to a seminar hours committee). My tolerance for the bullshit on this campus is rapidly diminishing--and was never very high to begin with. The campus is falling apart--in terms of a lot of the buildings, literally falling apart. Part of me almost hopes we do lose our accreditation and have to shut down, as I would pretty much be forced to retire (though I'd hate for my colleagues to have to suffer the consequences of closure, even if we reopen the next day as a campus of Suffolk CC). Meetings like those really do make me want to flee to the hills (or mountains, actually).
But on the other side, there are the students who want to meet with me weekly for mentoring. There's the Drama Queen (which may be unfair to her, but I'm not sure how else to label her) and there's another young man who told me that he thinks I'm crazy to put what I do into my classes--but who also tells me how much he needs what I have to offer. I don't know enough about his story to give him a moniker yet, but I do look forward to seeing him on a weekly basis. (And it makes my stats look good in terms of the number of seminar hours I book.)
But now, it's getting late--again--and I desperately need to get home and wind down. I don't want to look ahead at all, as while I'm grinding out all the essays I'm marking now, other homework is piling up and needs to be tended too. It will be another weekend of immersion in student work. No brain breaks on the horizon for this battered professor. Battered and fried. (Oh, food: there's an idea!)
More tomorrow, if I survive the night.
Monday, October 2, 2017
SNAFU
Apparently, I was more tired and distracted than I was aware yesterday, as the last six or seven of the essays I emailed to students didn't reveal my comments. I thought I was checking each one before I sent it, but obviously not.
So, as soon as I get home, I need to send them--and try to remember to put everything on a thumb drive to bring back to the office so I have it on this computer, not just at home.
I realized as I was grading today that a student had submitted his essay to Turnitin late; I thought he hadn't submitted it at all and was being grateful I didn't have to have it graded today--but oops. So, I graded that, on top of the ones I needed to grade for tomorrow's conferences.
I have no idea how I'm going to get the essays for Wednesday graded tomorrow. For one thing, I have to stop accepting them late--but even so, I don't know how I'll get through them. Especially as the lack of sleep from the past about week is starting to really take a toll on my attention and my stamina.
So, this is going to be a very brief post. I need to get home. I need to get those essays sent. I need to eat. I need to sleep.
And tomorrow will be whatever tomorrow is. I'll figure it out one way or another. Probably another. Oh god, shoot me now.
So, as soon as I get home, I need to send them--and try to remember to put everything on a thumb drive to bring back to the office so I have it on this computer, not just at home.
I realized as I was grading today that a student had submitted his essay to Turnitin late; I thought he hadn't submitted it at all and was being grateful I didn't have to have it graded today--but oops. So, I graded that, on top of the ones I needed to grade for tomorrow's conferences.
I have no idea how I'm going to get the essays for Wednesday graded tomorrow. For one thing, I have to stop accepting them late--but even so, I don't know how I'll get through them. Especially as the lack of sleep from the past about week is starting to really take a toll on my attention and my stamina.
So, this is going to be a very brief post. I need to get home. I need to get those essays sent. I need to eat. I need to sleep.
And tomorrow will be whatever tomorrow is. I'll figure it out one way or another. Probably another. Oh god, shoot me now.
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Done for Monday...
I wish I had it in me to squeeze out two more essays--half of Tuesday's quota--but I don't. I am pleased, however, that I got everything marked for tomorrow, including one essay that I thought I didn't have but in fact did (so I had eight to do today, not seven). And I still managed to get them done in the time I allotted for myself today: I wanted to get them done by 7:00, and I did.
Not that I'm doing that well on keeping the time per essay down, however: that's eight essays in approximately five hours. WAY too much time. I don't know how to get it down to two per hour, but I really do have to manage that.
Of course, I've been saying that for years, and I'm still not able to do it. Sigh.
But the fact that I can knock off for the evening now is good. I haven't slept for shit for nights now, and it's having a toll on my ability to concentrate and make sense. (It's also slowing down my typing, as I make more errors than usual.)
Still. Done is beautiful. And somewhere tomorrow, I'll find time to grade the four for Tuesday--and maybe a few of the ones for Wednesday. I know, I know, but hope springs eternal.
No more blogging tonight, though. I'm wrapping it up. More tomorrow.
Not that I'm doing that well on keeping the time per essay down, however: that's eight essays in approximately five hours. WAY too much time. I don't know how to get it down to two per hour, but I really do have to manage that.
Of course, I've been saying that for years, and I'm still not able to do it. Sigh.
But the fact that I can knock off for the evening now is good. I haven't slept for shit for nights now, and it's having a toll on my ability to concentrate and make sense. (It's also slowing down my typing, as I make more errors than usual.)
Still. Done is beautiful. And somewhere tomorrow, I'll find time to grade the four for Tuesday--and maybe a few of the ones for Wednesday. I know, I know, but hope springs eternal.
No more blogging tonight, though. I'm wrapping it up. More tomorrow.
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