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?