What could this mean?

I'm cleaning out my email inbox (I got a message on Saturday morning, after all day Friday of no email service, that my inbox was over the storage limit, so I couldn't send any emails). 


In the cleanup, I've found this message from October 2008 (no wonder the storage limit was exceeded: 20081). I've copied it just as it was: one huge paragraph with no signature (I still don't know who it's from):


Didn't know if i should post this to D2L or just email you, so i emailed you. I am just writing to say i have had some troubles the past 2 weeks in keeping up in other courses as well as this one. This time of year becomes very difficult for me. My allergies and stress levels are through the roof and cause me migraine headaches on a very regular basis. Increased by stress, eating habits and of course allergies. To what causes, i am not exactly sure. I have been working with my doctor to figure out solutions to this but it takes time. I am doing my best to get this project completed by Monday night, and i believe i can do so. I am fortunate enough to have interviewees at my place of employment who know exactly what i have been going through. I don't know if you have ever had a migraine, but i become pretty much immobile and very ill and cannot even think or open my eyes.! I have been experiencing them on a daily basis sometimes two or three times a day for the past two weeks now. I had to take a short break from classes to lower stress on the eyes and the brain. I can barely open my eyes without vomiting let alone think a rational thought other than death. I know you don't need to hear this. And no i am not going to kill myself. But when these headaches are at their peak, is the only time i have seriously thought of suicide. Finally today was the first day i have not had a serious migraine in over two weeks. RELIEF AT LAST! is in my future. I am going to work as hard as i can to get caught up over the next few days. I just wanted to express to you why my online attendance and discussion has fell in the past few weeks. With regular medication i have begun to see some relief and should be able to maintain this course with as much involvement as i had in the first few weeks. Thank you for reading my ridiculously long ramble. I appreciate it.


Here's another email from the same purging: at least this one's signed!


Hi Julie!

I didn't turn in my movie review essay and I really have no excuse except for I'm trying to get over a pretty good procrastination problem and just didn't have enough of it done to want to turn in. Is there anything I can still do to possibly turn that in or what will this do to my grade in the class? I don't really know where I am as far as progress goes in the class and I still need to have my ICO project approved but I am working on it. What can I or should I do?

Thanks!

-Gregg 

Delay

I guess if I'm not on vacation, I don't get around to blogging. Is it that I'm just busy? Sort of. Also, it seems as though I don't have much to blog about.

The week after spring break, I had one-on-one conferences with my writing students. I gave them back their midterm portfolios (five or six pieces of writing in each, which I had to grade before, during, and after break). Most students seemed to take the news of their midterm grade well. Notice I say "most." My Ethiopian grandfather is not happy, and about a half-dozen students did not show up for their conference.

This week, class is online because I was appointed (!) the moderator and respondent for our college's GLBTQ Film Fest all week. Yesterday, we watched The Celluloid Closet; today was Boys Don't Cry. I hadn't seen today's film, and it's a tragedy in so many ways. Absolutely stunning acting, too.

Shakespeare's original pronunciation

I just heard this cool radio program on NPR: how great! It turns out that scholars have been able to figure out how actors of Shakespeare's plays would pronounce his words.

better late than never?

In class while my Shakespeare students finish up their midterms tonight.

Why would someone not bring their textbook to an open-book exam? Three students did this tonight. Luckily, my exams have a variety of question types, so they could choose an option that asked them to check their reading journals or class notes instead of the text.

What to say?

Yesterday was our weekly Writers Workshop in Comp 1. The week's assignment was to write a rebuttal argument to an article the students had already chosen, read, and analyzed. One student read an article called "The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage" by Theodore Olson.

Here's what that student submitted as a "rebuttal essay" for workshop:

In the article of “The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage” written by Theodore Olson when he wrote “The simple fact is that there is no good reason why we should deny marriage to same-sex partners” is not true. There is lots of reason why we should deny gay marriage. What if we past the new law of gay marriage and other people with different types of relationship wants to past laws for other cases like group marriage, marriage under 18 years of age, or between a man and boy marriage. I just think that it is not a normal thing to do. I am a “traditional” person and I like to keep most of the things we do the same especially when it comes to marriage. Marriage should always be just between a man and women. What if we past the gay marriage law and in the future most of our population is either gay or lesbian, who is going to continue giving birth to new generations? I know you might be thinking of adopting a child if you have a same-sex partner, but what if the child grows up to just knowing about mainly gay relationships? A child needs to get love from parents, a mother and father, not two mothers or two fathers.

That's it: one paragraph. Most of the other students in workshop said they wanted to see an essay with an intro/body/conclusion. (Yay! They got it!).

One student praised the content by saying and writing, "Content is excellent. I agree 100%. Except the main reason I agree is because I am a CHRISTIAN." I had to give a little lecture about what's acceptable for academic arguments: we use logic and reason in academic arguments; issues of taste and faith are not arguable. Most students seemed to get that.

The student listened to all the feedback and went home to revise the essay. Here's the title of her/his new essay: "Reasons to Deny Gay Marriage." The "essay" has five paragraphs but no logic or evidence.

These sentences appear in the intro: "What if we passed the new law of gay marriage and people with different types of relationship wants to pass laws for other cases like group marriage, marriage under 18 years of age, or between and adult and child marriage? These will change the whole ideal of marriage."

Here's the entire conclusion: "What if we passed the gay marriage law and in the future most of our population is either gay or lesbian, who is going to give birth to new generations? This is a "traditional value", two individual giving birth to new generation. you might think of adopting a child if you have a same-sex partner, but what if the child grows up just knowing mainly about gay relationships? This would probably lead the child to a different path from society. There is always a good reason to deny gay marriage."

(Is it ironic that this student has already disclosed that s/he is divorced?)

Had

For the last few years, I've been noticing that my non-native English speakers, especially the Hmong students, are using the auxiliary verb "had" much more than necessary. It's weird. I wish someone would do a study on it.


Here's the sample paragraph I just read that's making me think about this phenomena:

Since last Wednesday we had gotten another chance to rewrite our paper after the feedback we gave the featured writers that day on their essays. I had read over my paper a few times and added a few details that we had heard during workshop. I had even taken some of my feedback into consideration and included those points into my paper. Since then, I added my opinion where it was needed. I had also added some more details of the writer's techniques she used to write her article. I had explained more on how the author portrayed logos and pathos and went more in depth on those topics.

The problem, of course, is that in this narrative of her/his writing process, the timeframe is hard to figure out. What happened when? The "had"s are supposed to indicate action that happened before the past-tense action. Right away, beginning with "Since last Wednesday," the student indicates a time period. The "had gotten" messes up the idea we had going because of the word "since."


I guess English is hard, but listening to Josh talk about Polish verbs, I'm not sure it's any harder than other languages. I wish I knew what was going on here.


Update: The student is a native English speaker! In fact, she's a very privileged suburban teen. 

What to do?

I have all of my writing students blog about our college's common book. This year, our book is Zeitoun. Most students like the book, which is written with straight-forward, simple, detail-rich prose.


One FYComp student wrote the following post. Sure, the blog is the place for casual, less-formally expressed discussion. And it's clear that this student's first language is not English, which is okay. But there are issues here make me wonder how s/he got into first-year composition:

Loving it The dark night finally arrived. working for five hours staight, Zumtoum uses bukets to catching the water that leaking from the roof, stuffing the broken windows with pillow, and move anything he could to the upstair, God, he must exhusted. I do like the author back and forth to discribs the Zumtoum and Kathy's conversations, so I know what is exactly they are thinking and felling. The story just grabs me into it; I can ever piture evey part of seduation like watching the movie, which is a great movie. The author's words can grab the readers mind, and I believe that is why the book is so succeful. I can't wait to read rest of it.

Do I dare?

I like this piece, but would it be safe to give my students? I don't know if they'd get the humor (is it satire? parody?), but maybe'd be okay if they thought it was real? (Don't know the source -- my cousin sent it in an email.)

Dear American,

For the last few weeks I’ve been under constant attack.  My opponents would have you believe that if I’m elected, you’ll be stripped of your Social Security benefits and will be scrounging for food in dumpsters with all the desperation of a feral cat.

Of course, that’s true.  But what they don’t tell you is what I’d replace Social Security with: an amazing new program I like to call PerryCare™.

Under PerryCare™, you’ll receive all the food, clothing and shelter you need, and it won’t cost a dime in taxes.  How if that possible?  Simple: you’ll be praying for all those things.

As a PerryCare™ recipient, each week you’ll receive in your email box a PerryCare™ PrayerMail™, giving you an easy-to-recite prayer for the bread, milk, cat food or whatever else you need to survive.  It’s like a Groupon from God.

PerryCare™ is more than a replacement for that infernal Ponzi scheme that has bamboozled Americans with regular monthly checks for 75 years.  It is part of my larger plan to return prayer to its rightful place in American life.  I get down on my knees every night and I promise you, if I am elected your President, I will bring this entire country to its knees.

I expect that some of my opponents will laugh at my plan, especially that lawn gnome Ron Paul and Michele “Crazy Eyes” Bachmann.  Fine, let them laugh!  Laughter is the best medicine.  And if I am elected, there will be no other medicine.

That brings me to my PerryCare™ medical plan, which will replace Medicare once I consign that Ponzi scheme to the electric chair of history.  I don’t have enough time to go into the whole plan right now, but here it is in two words: single prayer.

Your next President,

Gov. Rick Perry

TheNewSemester

I'm wondering about a policy I borrowed from my pal Carl Gerriets: if students have perfect attendance, they don't have to take the final.


Oddly, this incentive is really popular. But it leads to emails like this one I just received:

Hi Ms. Daniels,

This is Cassie Schultze from your composition 1021-22 class.  I just wanted to let you know that I have a doctors apt. tomorrow at 2:30 in Eagan.  I am planning on being in class and I will try my best to make it on time, but I do not want to rush this appointment.  I was just wondering, if I were to be 10 minutes late, would that effect my attendances?  

Indeed, "would that effect [your] attendances" -- I wonder. No, I don't wonder. Yes, it will affect your attendance.

It's been a month!

I haven't written here in quite a while -- even though I was teaching until the end of July (and then grading until the first week in August). The technical writers ended up doing quite well: almost all As and Bs in the course.

We've begun the "duty days" for our new semester: I keep telling everyone I want them to be "donut days" and then have donuts instead of terrible muffins and slippery-dry bagels for breakfast. We'll see. I've been saying the same thing for 9 years . . . the vice president last year said he liked the idea, and now he's the president, so we'll see.

I haven't finished my syllabi for Monday's classes: a Comp 1 and the Metro nature writers course. I need to tweak both quite a bit since I have a new book for Comp 1 and I'm making big changes to the nature writers course, given the "feedback" passed along from the head of the department. I guess I'll be working on those tomorrow . . . probably all night.

I'm also teaching a new course this semester -- Comp 2 -- which I've only taught once, the summer of 2003. My Shakespeare class got canceled, so I found this replacement. I'm just using the previous instructor's textbook, so I should be able to come up with something relatively interesting.

"What's fair is what's possible."

How's this for a powerful idea:

"Make friends with frustration; if you are not occasionally frustrated, even angered, by a teacher or learning environment that seems bent on nothing more than highlighting your limitations, you are probably wasting your time. The politically correct notion that no one should feel “uncomfortable” has no place here. Instead resist the temptation to build a case through appeals to what is “fair” when the going gets tough and you’re feeling sorry for yourself. What is fair is what is possible.  Creativity requires treating the impossible as possible."


It's from an article by a Forbes magazine writer, August Turak, called "Can Creativity be Taught?" He's talking about what makes a powerful, successful business leader, but the quote applies to students, too.

I may have to copy out this paragraph and post it on my office door . . . !

Education is an Escalator

Nicholas Kristof wrote this in today's New York Times:


"How is it that we can afford to double our military budget since 9/11, can afford the carried-interest tax loophole for billionaires, can afford billions of dollars in givebacks to oil and gas companies, yet can’t afford to invest in our kids’ futures?"

So true -- what kind of men do we have as our politicians these days? Why are they so cruel and greedy?
Taking from education is taking from the future; it's breaking the escalator. Why?

Another student gets mad in chat

This exchange happened yesterday morning in the online technical writing "online office hours" that I hold three times a week:


Female Student joined the Chat

Julie Daniels joined the Chat

Julie Daniels: Morning, Female

Male Student joined the Chat

Female Student: Morning, Julie.

Female Student: Male, how's your project coming?

Male Student: Eh, it's getting there. Dealing with a lot of other frustrations first though.

Julie Daniels: @Male - frustrations are part of it, I think! :-)

Female Student: @Male, frustrations related to developing your project?

Male Student: Frustrations with everything related to this class. I sent Prof. Daniels a few e-mails.

Julie Daniels: @Male - when did you send me emails??

Male Student: Yestesday about this time.

Julie Daniels: @Male - ah, I don't go online over the weekends, so I'll check my email right now

…

Female Student: I'm off to work. Goodbye.

Female Student left the Chat

Julie Daniels: @Male - are you still there?

Male Student: Yes.

Julie Daniels: So do you have any questions to ask?

Male Student: Not particularly, just wanted to make sure you read my e-mails.

Julie Daniels: Yep, I'm reading them right now!

Julie Daniels: I'm writing responses, too

Julie Daniels: Check your email! :-)

Male Student:  I am. finding some of the important points I made to be "skipped"

Julie Daniels: @Male - what do you mean?

Male Student: For example: "As I mentioned in the syllabus, the way to find out how you're doing with the discussions is to look at the "stars" after your post." I look at my stars and see 4's and 5's. Those star ratings never tell me that I'm getting half my points cut.

Julie Daniels: I responded to your email sentence-by-sentence, just about!

Julie Daniels: @Male - well, the half points came because you only answered half the question

Male Student: And when was I gonna find out that that was why? It happened for 4 weeks.

Male Student: And I couldn't look at my grades to see the trend because as far as I could see my grades weren't updated.

Male Student: As far as I was concerned I was answering the questions properly when I receiving 4-5 stars on each of my posts.

Male Student: I also was certain that I was answering all of the required questions. Maybe it was poorly emphasized in my writing style, I don't know.

Male Student: I have a tendency to, when given a couple related questions, to answer them at the same time.

Julie Daniels: @Male - I believe we had two questions in discussion for weeks 3, 4 and 5, not all weeks

Male Student: Alright, yeah, it was actually 3 weeks. 2 3 and 4.

Julie Daniels: @Male - yes, perhaps your answers are not as fully developed or sustained as they could be: specifics matter, and strong discussion posts will look more like the examples in the syllabus

Male Student: Well, how am I supposed to know I was doing something wrong?

Julie Daniels: Repeating oneself in a discussion post doesn't really show that the student is "discussing" or even really reading the prompts fully

Male Student: What *I* saw was 4/5 stars filled in next to my post.

Julie Daniels: @Male - well, I guess you know now! Or you could have read other students' posts

Male Student: I know now? Really? That's it?

Julie Daniels: @Male - yep, and so that would be 9 points out of 10

Male Student: It took HALF the semester to find out.

Julie Daniels: @Male - well, I'm not sure what else to tell you; an online course isn't an independent study, so the instructor doesn't communicate one-on-one with every student . . .

Male Student: yeah, 9 points out of 10. Or so I thought. Then i found out I get 4. But I don't find out I got only a 4 until 2 weeks later.

Julie Daniels: . . . the only tools we have are the course tools

Julie Daniels: and it sounds like you're using them . . .

Male Student: I can't use them.

Male Student: I can't look at my grades to see if something is going wrong because my grades keep staying way out of date.

Julie Daniels: @Male - the grades should be up-to-date . . . ?

Male Student: Recall that the same day I inquired about my low discussion points I also was waiting for my instructions to be graded.

Julie Daniels: @Male - yes, I recall

Male Student: so if that's not even up, how can I think my discussion posts are?

Julie Daniels: So are you able to move forward with discussions now?

Male Student: Especially when the point values I'm expecting aren't what I'm getting.

Julie Daniels: Have you checked in for this week's discussion yet?

Male Student: I can't even move forward with this class.

Male Student: This is completely ridiculous.

Julie Daniels: @Male - ??

Julie Daniels: I have to say that I don't understand your comment here: you have all your assignments with a ton of feedback from me -- why can't you move forward?

Julie Daniels: (I'm very confused!)

Male Student: I told you why. You skipped a lot of details, and didn't do much to combine how different things add up to very large problems.

Male Student: I'm already down to a 68% in the class, and when I keep losing points and not having any idea why until half the semester later, I can't do crap to fix that.

Male Student: And of course when you say "Well, now you know for the future" with only a couple weeks left, that's just stupid.

Male Student: I had ZERO way to figuring it out before.

Male Student: So if I have to suffer because I can't actually look into something, that's completely unfair.

Julie Daniels: @Male - well, my feedback on documents is the way to figure things out

Male Student: How does that help my discussions?

Julie Daniels: the grades tool is an insufficient way to figure things out

Julie Daniels: You're right that you can't change the past -- can't change the past discussion -- but you can do better in the future!

Male Student: Plus, you're forgetting that I also noted in the e-mail several poorly worded things in the assignment descriptions.

Male Student: Are you freakin' serious?

Male Student: Just so you know, I've talked to other people about how all this is going, I've actually been recommended to talk to the head of department.

Julie Daniels: Did you get a chance to read my responses to your email?

Julie Daniels: Did you get a chance to read my comments on your assignments?

Male Student: Yeah. I'm still waiting for the other half where you respond to where I have a point.

Julie Daniels: @Male - I sent as many responses as I knew to send; I don't know what you mean by "the other half"

Male Student: You skipped responding to anything where I actually made my point.

Julie Daniels: I guess you'll have to send me another email, then, because I responded to everything that I thought you asked

Male Student: To use this sentence again "As I mentioned in the syllabus, the way to find out how you're doing with the discussions is to look at the "stars" after your post. "  When I *LOOK* and *SEE* a 4 star and a 5 star post every week, I *BELIEVE* I am doing a 9 star job.

Male Student: And then I get a 4.

Male Student: But I can't see that I got a 4 til 3 weeks later.

Male Student: So I keep doing what I do the next two week cause I think I'm getting 9 stars, which is pretty good.

Julie Daniels: @Male - yes, I remember that you asked this question already, and I responded that some weeks we had two discussion questions to respond to

Male Student: So then the next two weeks I do my same 9 star job. After all 3 weeks, I find out I get 12 points.

Male Student: You see the issue?

Male Student: There was no indication anywhere that I wasn't doing a 9 star job.

Male Student: So there was no way for me to know that I wasn't doing things right.

Julie Daniels: I guess I could say that the indication was in the number of questions that showed up in each discussion space . . .

Julie Daniels: . . . and you're right that you must have missed that indication about what the discussion each week consisted of

Male Student: Like I said, as far as I could consciously tell, I was answering them.

Male Student: And getting 4/5 stars.

Male Student: Please, stop avoiding the fact that there was no way for me to see that I wasn't doing it right.

Male Student: If I'm taking a math class where I'm LEARNING math, do you think the teacher is doing their job if they don't tell me that I'm doing it wrong?

Male Student: Likewise, if you're not giving any indication of me doing my assignments wrong, and it's apparently a consistent issue, are you really doing your job of teaching me the right technique?

Male Student: Or am I paying to not learn?

Julie Daniels: @Male - I'm not sure how to answer your messages here, other than to say what I have said

Male Student: Why aren't you sure how to answer? Because it would admit flaws in the curriculum?

Julie Daniels: There are many ways in our class for students to see how they're doing: the grades tool is just one (my feedback is another, reading other students posts, reading examples, analyzing the samples, reading the textbooks, etc.)

Male Student: None of those address the SPECIFIC example I'm presenting.

Male Student: Except perhaps reading others' posts, though I can quite easily counter that.

Male Student: What if they also lost half points for also answering only one of the questions? I can't see that they did.

Male Student: So if I see another 5 start post similar to mine, then I can't say I did mine wrong, now can I?

Julie Daniels: @Male - your message here indicate to me that you're frustrated and angry

Julie Daniels: But I can't do anything about the past at this point

Julie Daniels: And I do want to remind you that these chats are archived, in case that makes a difference to you

Male Student: See? You're avoiding it again.

Male Student: Have you noticed that?

Male Student: You wanted specifics, and details right? Well I presented them.

Male Student: And now you're trying to avoid what I'm talking about.

Julie Daniels: @Male - I am also thinking that you're misunderstanding something: the grades percentage might be sending you the wrong message . . .

Male Student: Percentage?

Julie Daniels: you mentioned that you're seeing 68%?

Male Student: Yeah. That's points earned / points I've tried to earn * 100

Julie Daniels: I think that's out of the total points possible for the whole course, which is not done yet . . .

Male Student: My own math.

Male Student: No, that's not total points.

Male Student: That's total so far.

Julie Daniels: Ah, okay: your own math!

Julie Daniels: Then never mind -- I was just trying to figure things out

Julie Daniels: Looks like you missed a quiz, missed blog post points -- but in other assignments, you're doing okay

Julie Daniels: The first progress memo was low, but your next two should be high, right?

Male Student: Probably not. Sounds like no matter how hard I try I lose points over something not explained clearly.

Male Student: Though I do have an excuse that won't be considered, that being the fact that I've already been yelled at for being on the computer too much and thus forcing me to not be able to use it as much.

Male Student: Of course, I'd also have an extra 5 points on the blog posts if it my 14 hour blackout was considering.

Julie Daniels: @Male - now that you know you need to complete three exercises on the progress memos, will you be able to do so?

Male Student: I know that I am very tempted to take the suggestion of talking to the dean.

Male Student: er, not the dead, head of english.

Male Student: Because let's face it, if someone isn't doing something right to demonstrate what they should be learning in the class, and the teacher doesn't tell me, the teacher isn't teaching.

Male Student: and since that's what the student pays for, they're not getting what they paid for.

Julie Daniels: @Male - I've just done the math for you, too, and I get that you've earned 344 points out of a possible 465 at this point in the semester . . .

Julie Daniels: That's 74%

Julie Daniels: not 68%

Julie Daniels: So maybe you're doing better than you think you are?

Male Student: I just added, foudn 515 points..

Male Student: Though this math is once again avoiding the discussion.

Julie Daniels: Maybe you used the wrong totals -- for Discussions, for instance, you'd use the total of 50 rather than 80 since we've just had five weeks, not 8

Male Student: Did that.

Julie Daniels: And for progress memos, I didn't use that total at this point because only the highest two memos count toward your grade

Male Student: Also only used 40 for blogs.

Julie Daniels: right, 40 for blog posts

Julie Daniels: so where do you suppose the extra 50 points come from?

Male Student: But like I said, this is a red herring.

Julie Daniels: I am not sure that I see it as a red herring since you began this discussion with unhappiness related to your grade percentage . . .

Julie Daniels: . . . so I thought I'd double-check for you

Male Student: I'm the student that only did half his calc 2 final because he knew that's all he needed for the only grade he was gonna get.

Male Student: er, calc 1 final.

Julie Daniels: the other big issue for you seems to be that you missed some weeks of the two-question discussion posts . . . and I can't do anything about that miss at this point

Male Student: Well, why didn't something happen then?

Julie Daniels: Pardon me? I don't understand your question

Male Student: I'm not learning if I don't get told I'm doing it wrong.

Male Student: If I say 2 time 2 is 5, and my math teacher never tells me I'm doing it wrong, did I actually learn math?

Julie Daniels: But you weren't doing anything "wrong" -- you were just missing some things (discussion questions, a quiz)

Male Student: Isn't that doing something wrong? It results is 55% of my grade being lost.

Julie Daniels: students get to choose what they ignore in an online class -- because it's not an independent study, and because I don't double-check every student's access to every item in our course, I can't tell you that you've chosen to ignore something . . .

Male Student: I chose to ignore? Way to blame the student.

Julie Daniels: But that's your choice to ignore the questions --

Male Student: Are you sure you didn't choose to see if one sentence answered two questions? Maybe you just skimmed through it?

Julie Daniels: I'm not "blaming" anyone, I'm just saying that students make choices

Male Student: As do teachers.

Julie Daniels: As do humans! :-)

Male Student: So like I said, are you sure you didn't *choose* not to see if one sentence answered 2 question?

Julie Daniels: @Male - no, I read the student posts thoroughly

Male Student: Or that instead of missing a question I just didn't have much of a response for it, so instead of losing not only half points for questions but also half points for my responses to others, it might have just been a 2 point deduction?

Male Student: Out of curiosity, do you still have access to the responses?

Male Student: Or discussions rather.

Julie Daniels: Anyway, I am going to sit quietly for a while to see if anyone joins the last 20 minutes of our chat --

Julie Daniels: I've said as much to you as I can at this point

Male Student: As much as you're willing to.

Male Student: I've shown this discussion to others already, they agree, you're avoiding the issue.

Male Student: Unanswered questions: Male Student: If I say 2 time 2 is 5, and my math teacher never tells me I'm doing it wrong, did I actually learn math?    

Male Student: Out of curiosity, do you still have access to the responses?

Male Student: Now off to find an e-mail.

Male Student left the Chat

"grading jail"

That's what one of my colleagues calls it when she has to grade a ton of stuff: grading jail. I'm not fond of the phrase, but that's how I've felt today.


I've been grading online technical writing proposals and other documents since 10:30 a.m.: it's now 11:30 p.m. I still have some calculations to make and grades to upload; then, I should be caught up at midterm time with that class. The students will have a sense of their midterm grades, and I can relax over the holiday weekend.


Wait! I still have half of the final exams and all of the final essays to grade from my Literature class that finished yesterday! What was I thinking?


And I'm not even going to *talk* about the student who emailed me, saying
"Im so in shock right now, I put alot of hard work into that proposal and you gave me nothing. I am on a long 5 day vacation right now, the proposal is behind me already, why did you do me like that. . . . I need to speak to you in person, Im very appauled by this" 


[yes, "do me like that" and "appauled"] and
"I am getting a weird sense about the way I am being treated, and may have to consider dropping your course after,"

and
"I have to honestly say you were way too harsh on me for this proposal, Im an "A" writer. We need to set up a meeting so we can discuss the situation you have with me and see what is going on, i want to know all of my grades and figure out what is wrong before the July 7th deadline to drop this course and hopefully find a different instuctor for this course in the fall, i feel because of my topic you are treating me unfair. Hopefully after our meeting TUESDAY the 5th, I can feel better about being in your course, Im a good student and a good person and I dont deserve this grade."