Thursday Cat Blogging

Look at the schmittens!!!

Good gosh, I love our cats.

And the job goes on.

Summer classes started yesterday. Thankfully, I am only teaching one per session this year -- last summer I had two classes in Six-Week I. Then again, Six-Week II was spent trotting around Europe on my honeymoon, so the extra work in SWI was worth it.

The class I'm currently teaching is an intro., related to a class I've taught for the last two years as a seminar. This means far, far more lecture, and far, far less discussion. The really good thing about it is that I have in-between level of this course next semester (not 100 level, but not 400 level either!) at my "new" school. I will be far better prepared for that than I am now.

The bad is that I'm more nervous about this class, as it's outside my field of specialty. The last two weeks will be far more on-task, for me, but right now I'm rereading books and scribbling notes for lectures. Mr. Squirrel is doing the same thing - teaching a class he's not taught before - so our household is a little tense. It's not horrible, but it's also not as conducive, so far, to dissertation-editing as I'd hoped.

Why I hate everyone.

Yes, it's finals week. Yes, that means I'm getting annoying emails from the students who haven't been in class for a month, asking if they can possibly pass, and also if they can turn their final in late.

(Short answer: No. To both.)

Generally, I feel like I have reduced tolerance at this point in the semester, and not just for students.

However, I've come to a realization -- one that I think I come to every time I teach one particular class and give one particular assignment: Having students grade themselves is really damn brilliant, because most of them will not *outright* lie, when asked. Am now trying to figure out how to work that into every class, without them knowing about it beforehand.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Because, really, if mom's not using the bed, it's fair game.

Letters, part one.

In the spirit of Rate Your Students, here are some of my end-of-term letters:

• A: I am sad that you cannot find enough sources for your research paper. I am also surprised, as you chose one of the easiest - and hottest - topics in the field. I should remind you, though, that this paper was due yesterday, and that this is already your second chance to complete the assignment. Remember earlier in the semester, when you didn't finish the research paper, and didn't show up for seminar to present your findings?
  
• M: When I told you the first time that your thesis didn't make sense for this class, what did you do? Did you really decide that I was completely wrong, and that you would research the topic anyway? It seems so. Unfortunately, topics completely unrelated to my course don't result in good grades... they also make me think you're recycling a paper from a previous course.
• B: You have come late to every class session that you've deigned to attend, this semester. You've turned in maybe half the required work, and been generally annoying and whiny. When you fail this course, could you please not retake it with me this summer? Thank you.
• L: You've been a fantastic student. You have, in fact, been a very bright spot in my generally dark and dank semester. Until yesterday, you had only missed one class, and even that was pre-arranged with me. So why (oh why?) did you randomly skip the one day that I had mentally set aside for evaluations?