Of my grading, that is. I can see the light, faintly, at the end of the tunnel.

I have so many posts planned. Tags to include … weird doggie nicknames, doggie-talk, memes, taking stock, old blog, pluralism – Canadian style, middle-aged mixed media mash-up, and confronting the enemy.

Marking / grading is a much more emotional experience – for me, I suppose – than one might expect. My classes are small and (supposedly) at a graduate level. This past term, I taught two classes to the same group of 16 people, so I got to know them pretty well – or so I thought.  I designed each of these classes to have the following at the end:

• term project (due in either the last or second to last class)
• in-class assignment (group work, timed exercise)
• final exam

Times two. So that is six major sets of rather involved stuff to mark.

It is hard to describe what it feels like to teach a group of students, to get to know them reasonably well, and then to have them hand in plagiarized work on their final projects and, in a few cases, the final exam – a portion of it was take-home. In some cases, the work handed in by student A still had student B's name on it.

It feels a bit like getting kicked in the head. With this group, I have turned myself in knots to try to get them to understand project management. They have two textbooks, software, customized powerpoint slides AND the summary slides provided by the textbook publisher, each other (esp. for the group work) and me, twice a week. Every teacher feels their subject is the most important, of course. The beauty of learning project management – philosophically – is that you can apply this framework to ANYTHING. To completing schoolwork, to cooking a huge meal for many people, to managing IT projects, to building a house … very useful, transferable skills. After all the resources I've put before them, the practice, the lectures, the hand-holding through the software step-by-step, the individual tutoring after class … the response of eight out of 16 students was to either provide material to other students, or to hand in the materials provided by other students.

Sigh. Feels like pissing in the wind somedays.

I have one set of final exams left to grade, a discussion board to evaluate, and peer evaluations to compile. Then the marks get entered and I can start cooking/baking like a mad-woman for Christmas. Oh, I have some furniture to paint, too.

It is a beautiful day here. Not sunny, but very warm. Spring-like. Someone didn't get the memo about Canada and December. It is warm enough for me to have my windows open and get an exchange of air in here. My dog had a marvelous time in the park, cavorting. We had an extra long walk. One of the other dog people in the park said she saw crocuses (crocii?) coming up in her front yard.   I hear birds chirping outside. Sounds … hopeful. A good way to approach the final batch of grading.

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