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.