Thirteen: let's hope it's a lucky number

I have thirteen essays yet to grade; that's combining both sections of 101. Of those thirteen, six were submitted today. It's possible a few more may come in, but if they do, I don't have to comment on them; I just need to calculate a grade, then reduce it by 50%. but honestly, I'm not expecting anything from the students who are, in terms of essays AWOL. I'm pretty sure that what I have is what I'm going to get.

I just spent a little time reworking--again--the assignment handouts for the various 101 essays. I don't think I'll ever achieve the Golden Assignment Handout, but at least I keep striving for clarity and concision.

Today generally was surprisingly unstressful--particularly considering the unusually fierce bout of insomnia last night. Advisement was busy enough to move the time along but slow enough that I was able to mark almost everything I have in hand for all three classes. The one bummer of a moment was when I checked enrollment for my classes for spring--and saw that the online Nature in Lit has gone from one student to zero. I'm not sure if that's about the class, about me, or about it being at the bottom of the list of online courses, but it does make me wonder about how much time and energy I should put into prepping the damned thing. (It also makes me think I need to do fliers--as per usual. I was foolish to believe it would run just because it's online: it needs to be "sold," more's the pity.)

Today's conferences were fine, too--and I had enough time, because of cancellations and one no-show, to grade the three for tomorrow with time to spare. I was afraid I might be burning the midnight whatever, but no: I can sail out of here at my usual time, knowing I'm set for tomorrow.

I am some combination of amused and alarmed to note in myself a sense of "Oh, good: I'm done," just because I graded everything for the conferences. That was the minority of the essays I have to do: eleven, with--as I said--thirteen more to go. So I need to be on top of things tomorrow and, if I can make myself be disciplined, on Friday (though my whole body is going to be screaming "PROCRASTINATE! You can do 'em on Saturday."). I should be motivated by the "if I do it and get it done, it won't be hanging over my head" thing, but I suspect I'll be more motivated by the "the students need these so they can do their best work" thing.

Oh, yeah: and I also still need to do the check sheets for editing, even if I'm not marking the essays for that step. I keep forgetting that I actually have to do that--and it will take a bit of time. I probably should have been doing those as I graded all along, but I was concerned about time for the ones I needed for the conferences. I hope, however, I remember to do the editing check sheets as I grade the remainder, so each one is done as in stick-a-fork-in-it done.

Then I'll have some reading notes to mark for the SF students (which I'm mostly enjoying actually, especially the notes that are pretty good, providing some real thoughts for me to encourage, respond to, challenge...); that will be it until next Wednesday, when I get the final versions of final essays from the 101s. Final versions of final essays from the SF students will be on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Then self-evaluations--and we're out.

And I'll have survived another semester. Remarkable to feel it so close. (Challenging not to let go of my energy and drive prematurely.)


Apropos of nothing: it's been interesting to speculate on the nose-dive in the blog readership since an all-time high this summer. A friend on Facebook suggested that my readers might mostly be academics--and that theory might be borne out by the fact that in the last week, the "page views" have declined even more precipitously, right at the time of year when most of us are in the final throes (or throws) of the term. It would be nice to think I'm talking to other educators. You all get what I'm talking about, right?