Done, done, and done. With grading, that is. Final essay exams, weblog posts, homework questions, chat participation. I've made my list, and I've checked it twice. I had a number of students who did really good work this quarter. And, unfortunately, several who ignored a large part of the course requirements and are likely to be extremely displeased with their grades. Tomorrow morning I'll electronically "bubble in" their grades, and then brace myself for the onslaught of "how could I get a..." that will result. By waiting until tomorrow to formally submit the grades to student records, I delay the grade announcement emails until tomorrow night, after commencement (though the students can see their final average via the courseware gradebook function if they look). By then I may have recovered sufficiently from grading-induced sleep deprivation to manage the barrage gracefully.
Part of why I haven't been posting recently is that I've been busy--end-of-quarter work, faculty meetings, 72 hour trips to the west coast, taking care of a sick husband, etc. But part of it has also been that overall, life is good, and that isn't really fodder for interesting blog posts. Christine Lavin, one of my favorite singer/songwriters ever, has a song called "Please Don't Make Me Too Happy," with these lyrics:
Please don't make me too happy
Because if you do
My songwriting will suffer
From the bliss you'll put me through
Nothing's quite as boring
As two people this in love
We'll be so blinded by the stars in our eyes
We won't see the stars above
There's something to that, really. Angst is a great source of creativity, and I've been awfully short on angst lately.
The LA trip was lovely...had lunch with Allan Karl, and dinner with with someone I've known since kindergarten, but had fallen out of touch with. I also met with folks from USC's Annenberg Center about a potential collaborative grant project, and then got to go to the pre-SSAW party before heading back home.
I think I'm still in denial about the upcoming move, despite the fact that it's less than a month away. That's going to have to change, soon.
We're mulling over car purchase/leasing options, as well as house refinancing options, as well as necessary home repairs before we leave. Ack. While next year we'll be in good shape financially, the dual salary won't start 'til July, and there are going to be a lot of expenses before then. We've got some juggling to do over the next few weeks to make it all fall into place.
Prof,
You seem to be a very difficult person to get a hold of. I would
really like to discuss with you
A) My final exam and
B) The "I only found two weblog comments from you..." comment for
Weblog Comments.
I think there might have been an accidental error, as i in fact double
checked my comments and there were more than 2:
http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/718/718-043/archives/week_10_readings_on_the_future_of_the_it_profession.php#4072
http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/718/718-043/archives/week_9_readings_on_legislation_policy_and_technology.php#4047
http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/718/718-043/archives/week_2_homework_question_is_email_dead.php#4066
http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/718/718-043/archives/week_4_homework_question_metadata_and_the_semantic_web.php#4065
http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/718/718-043/archives/week_6_readings_on_folksonomies.php#4064
http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/718/718-043/archives/week_7_readings_mobile_ubiquitous_and_locationbased_computing.php#4029
http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/718/718-043/archives/week_8_homework_question_privacy_risks.php#4041
http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/718/718-043/archives/week_6_homework_question_testing_flickr.php#4013
I had my final exam proofread again by a technical writer at work this
afternoon for any careless spelling and grammatical errors to which they
only found about 3-4. I will also like to stress that the 2nd paper
about Bill Gates, Link here:
Bill Gates
i felt and many other people felt as well was
excelent. I just want to make sure that by some chance my work didn't
get confused with someone else.
I really appreciate your assistance and hope i do not sound pushy.
-Mike
Hi, Mike. Thanks for the URLs. I had searched the comments database for "Mike," but apparently mySQL was case sensitive in that search and didn't retrieve those comments. I'll correct the comments grade for you.
As to the final exam, I'll send you the marked-up versions.
Thanks Liz, i figured it was something like that.
Take care
Mike
You were at the pre-party? Rats! Now I'm even more sorry I missed it. Rotten graduation weekend...
You have an exciting year ahead of you. I am very envious!
Does the courseware gradbook function cut down on grade complaints? If students can keep track of their grades themselves throughout the semester using that function, it seems they might be less likely to be surprised by the final result.
As one of those creative sorts...angst as fodder for creative work is highly overated. Actually, great art is produced when one is eating and sleeping regularly.