tripti, of sorts
my semester has ended. spent the last two days grading; finished my grading today. left the project reports with the ta. walked home feeling liberated. switched on the england west-indies game, popped open a duvel, relaxed.
spurred on by a chat-buddy, i opened a second.
now i don't feel like packing any more despite the fact i leave for the airport in less than ten hours.
i think the semester ended well. today we hosted a visitor - a man who'd been on my committee. i spent an hour and a bit showing him around and talking to him about my work. it was good. i also finished my grading on a high note. one of the reasons i was SO PISSED OFF yesterday was the grading. it was the straw on the camel's back, really. one of the groups that had two guys right at the top of their section had goofed up BIGTIME on their project report. despite the fact that i'd told them the exact format in which to write their report, despite the fact that i'd told them what was important, despite the fact that i'd posted the template online, these guys had entirely skipped two sections from their report. so they deserved to get zero on these two sections. i gave them a couple of points in each, out of sympathy. that didn't help. the two guys woh had been ranked #s 1 and 2 with only this report left to be accounted for have now slipped to 7 and 10 or something. the A+'s that were theirs for the taking, all their hard work through the duration of the semester, thrown away through carelessness.
i was SO MAD at them.
i told a colleague about it -- he pointed out that since the instructions had been so precise, not penalizing these guys for not following them would be unfair to the rest of the class. "when you work at a job if your boss asks you to do a and you do b, you get fired." very true. i made my mind up to fire these guys if i saw them. they'd never been very warm, but they were smart, they'd be hurt by this.
today was better. i got a few more nice emails from the kids. one of the few projects left to grade was from a group that had all it's members at the top of their section. and although i had high expectations from them i was blown away as i graded their report -- no excuses to cut points anywere but one. they ended up with 99 on 100 -- by far the highest i've ever given. all five of them at the top of the class. i felt a little sad for a girl who'd been in another group -- she would have gotten an A+ had she been in any other section -- but i have to grade on a curve. not fair.
i bumped into three of the guys on my way home. told them the little secret. made their day.
anyway, that's all done now. there's two duvels inside of me, and the storm that passed is now pulling a strong wind inside the apartment. joni sings hejira, she depresses me. eventually i will drag myself up, finish my dinner, transfer the stuff from the bed to the suitcases, decide what to read en route, charge the poodle, count the greenbacks in my travel pouch. the semester's over, it's time to look at the bigger picture again.
i hope the review that's on the editor's desk doesn't come in tonight. if it does, i hope it's a positive. i hope he loves me now.
it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
spurred on by a chat-buddy, i opened a second.
now i don't feel like packing any more despite the fact i leave for the airport in less than ten hours.
i think the semester ended well. today we hosted a visitor - a man who'd been on my committee. i spent an hour and a bit showing him around and talking to him about my work. it was good. i also finished my grading on a high note. one of the reasons i was SO PISSED OFF yesterday was the grading. it was the straw on the camel's back, really. one of the groups that had two guys right at the top of their section had goofed up BIGTIME on their project report. despite the fact that i'd told them the exact format in which to write their report, despite the fact that i'd told them what was important, despite the fact that i'd posted the template online, these guys had entirely skipped two sections from their report. so they deserved to get zero on these two sections. i gave them a couple of points in each, out of sympathy. that didn't help. the two guys woh had been ranked #s 1 and 2 with only this report left to be accounted for have now slipped to 7 and 10 or something. the A+'s that were theirs for the taking, all their hard work through the duration of the semester, thrown away through carelessness.
i was SO MAD at them.
i told a colleague about it -- he pointed out that since the instructions had been so precise, not penalizing these guys for not following them would be unfair to the rest of the class. "when you work at a job if your boss asks you to do a and you do b, you get fired." very true. i made my mind up to fire these guys if i saw them. they'd never been very warm, but they were smart, they'd be hurt by this.
today was better. i got a few more nice emails from the kids. one of the few projects left to grade was from a group that had all it's members at the top of their section. and although i had high expectations from them i was blown away as i graded their report -- no excuses to cut points anywere but one. they ended up with 99 on 100 -- by far the highest i've ever given. all five of them at the top of the class. i felt a little sad for a girl who'd been in another group -- she would have gotten an A+ had she been in any other section -- but i have to grade on a curve. not fair.
i bumped into three of the guys on my way home. told them the little secret. made their day.
anyway, that's all done now. there's two duvels inside of me, and the storm that passed is now pulling a strong wind inside the apartment. joni sings hejira, she depresses me. eventually i will drag myself up, finish my dinner, transfer the stuff from the bed to the suitcases, decide what to read en route, charge the poodle, count the greenbacks in my travel pouch. the semester's over, it's time to look at the bigger picture again.
i hope the review that's on the editor's desk doesn't come in tonight. if it does, i hope it's a positive. i hope he loves me now.
it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
posted by Tabula Rasa | 5/18/2007 08:31:00 PM
14 Comments:
Wish my teachers had told me it hurts them to give students a lower grade. I might have worked harder.
I know this will be a massive logistical exercise, far more challenging than sending troops to Iraq, but let's do a meetup. Philly is fairly mid-point for folks in mid-Atlantic and Northeast. What say, people?
the life of a professor sounds a bit appealing.
bon voyage!
Never hurt the teachers in my very last school, it was cbse, so they got great kicks out of it. But the ones before that. I remember messing up a single essay, and my teacher was close to tears by the end of it. Perhaps a bit extreme, but he was pretty fond of me.
Have a great trip, awaiting lots of pictures more than anything else.
km:
looks like no response! :-)
tgfi:
well yes, but then there's tenure.
thanks. it wasn't bad.
renovatio:
i think good school teachers are worth their weight in gold for society. not if you look at their payslips, though.
can't promise too much on the pictures front, i'm afraid. this trip's for house-hunting and research so if you'd like i can post a few empty apartments and offices.
Hasta la vista, Prof.
J.A.P.
Ooooh. I'm alll for meet-up (assuming I was included under the section people).
Sorry, back on the web after a while.
Let me know when you are in town.
KM, Meeting up sounds like a plan. But Philly...?
thank you mock turtle, my thoughts exactly.
jap:
thankee!
revealed:
that's for km to tell and us to find out. but you won't be here then, will you?
mt:
i should be flying in today, air traffic willing. will get in touch.
bm:
philly isn't all that bad, ya know. i'll be there on the 3rd.
Philly is a bad idea. Not that anyone asked me.
ph:
km did say "people", angel.
Finishing my life on the other side of the fence I can see what life is on other side too..
The humanity of getting mad at a good student sc!@#$^&* up made me smile....
Cheers and do visit some time
Yeah. I'm not. Happy? Sheesh, I tell ya!
alien:
:-) thanks for visiting.
revealed:
nah. how could we be?
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