Well, it turns out many of us didn't use most of our snow day for grading. We just enjoyed the day, rested, listened to music, noodled around on Facebook, did a little school work (little grading, a lot of course website updating in my case), played outdoors in the snow, caught up on correspondence or phone calls to dear one, and baked or cooked (in my case, cornbread). There you have it.I am going to be up much of the night reading and grading, reading and grading.
But then I'll be done.
It's a caffeinated kind of day.
2 comments:
(((Jane)))
I just turned in Midterm Early Warnings. That's what Raritan calls it.
And I am appalled at how many names I submitted to the Dean of Instruction: kids who are in danger of failing.
Why?
Well, I am the easiest Pass in the world. All you have to do is hand me anything and I will consider it. But give me nothing--not even a plausible lie--and I'm out of Consider.
One of other Deans here circulated an attachment from the derriere garde NY Times about something that I actually hadn't heard of before: not grade inflation but a new sense of Entitlement by college students. Hey, I show up, I should start with a B and work my way up.
No, actually you start on any paper with an A, and it takes four sessions without handing it in for you to earn a failing grade.
I have not yet been subjected to pressure to pass kids who haven't done the work, but so far about 20% of my "kids" (at 18 and 19!) are on the edge of taking a long dive. Does it "look bad" when a present day teacher fails some undisclosed "too many" students? Is this especially damaging in a public institution that gets its funds from the same taxpayers whose kids come in to classrooms and fall dead asleep?
I need the spring break very badly right about now. Can you tell? Maybe I'll go to Fort Lauderdale:-).
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