Different section, different rules

So, I was saying the other day that I wouldn't adjust grades for the students in the 101s; I sent the "withdraw or fail" emails--and one student actually got the email and came in today with the withdrawal form. (I just checked: she got the form in to the Registrar and is officially out of the class, so that's good.)

But then I started calculating grades for the students in the later section. Of the ten who actually submitted the final essay, seven would have failed if I calculated their grades using the original scoring--and most of them were failing entirely because they didn't submit the discussion boards.

So, I figured out a formula that would put the balance of the grade on the work apart from the discussion boards; the discussion board posts thereby ended up being essentially extra credit. The students who did them, or did most of them, got a significant bump. One student--the snotty or not? young woman--would have gotten an A+ either way (if we gave A+ grades, which we don't), but the rest either passed or didn't, got above a D or didn't, based on the rest of their work. And I feel like the grade distribution is pretty accurate.

I was going to post this hours ago, but then I realized I still had enough steam left to embark on grading for the SF class. I was going to try to get it all done tonight--but I just realized that one student didn't upload his essay to Turnitin, and he's one I've suspected of plagiarizing since his first essay. (It actually wasn't that good an essay, but it sure read like a pastiche of other people's intelligent and sophisticated ideas and language.) I've just sent him an email telling him that he needs to email the essay to me so I can upload it. I was going to type it in myself and upload it that way--but you know what? It's late. I'm tired. I'm still getting over the hurkey-furkey. I might do it tomorrow. I might not.

The interesting thing about the SF class so far is that there is a strange gap: a number of students got A's (actually deserved them, in fact). I think there's one B, one C--and then a bunch of D's. Not a bell curve, more of a dromedary curve. I still have a few more to evaluate and a few more numbers to crunch--and given how early the office closes tomorrow, I need to get my little fanny in here ASAP to finish up and submit my paperwork.

All the more reason to call a halt to today's proceedings and put off to tomorrow the rest.

Oh, so close. So close....