I don’t suppose my dog ate my blog post will do as an excuse will it??? Hmmm thought not truth is I’ve been rushing like a mad thing to catch up on the work that stacked up while I was sick.
Student have this rather nasty habit of wanting their results for assessment back in a timely manner and add to that it’s now end of semester and I also have to assess their contributions to the on-line tutorials as well as mark the final assignment.
So I have nearly 100 new papers to grade arriving this Thursday and as such I’d like to finish the on-line participation assessment before that little avalanche falls in my lap. To add insult to injury I’ve been horribly sick with the Flu [yes the previously mentioned Zombie style flu] and was behind in some of my other work. I should be back here and up and running soon, sooner if I can catch a break time wise but I thought I should let you know that I’m not:
- Dead
- Abducted by aliens
- Writers block [worse than the above 2]
- Suddenly taken a dislike to all of you.
I have had one upside to this [other than the money earned] and that is I’ve come across some old favourites music wise to listen to while I work. This one is the current number 1 on my personal chart – Blue Oyster Cult, Don’t Fear the Reaper [also the music to Stephen Kings The Stand.] So enjoy the music and I will see you as so as I catch up a little more – I have several rants that need airing and my soap box is getting dusty from lack of use so it will be sooner rather than later.
Unload and Unwind 
It’s wonderful to hear from you Jenni. I’m so glad you’re feeling better. Thanks for dropping us a note. I was siding wth the “abducted by aliens” team. Once you’d escaped (probably in the evacuation pod) you wouldn’t have to worry about writers block anymore. Once you got the e-pod close enough to Earth to be in transporter range we could beam you back home. Likely on time for tea. 😀
Looking forward to your future posts Jenni, omce your work load from those pesky students has died down.
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Oh I wish it were aliens right about now – some of the students seem to think signing into to the tutorials constitutes participating and are a little put out by the fact that I have failed over half of them for it. It’s only worth 10% overall but honestly it should have been an easy 10% as participation was very simple. They had weekly readings and all they needed to do was post their thoughts on what they read. Could be two lines to a couple of paragraphs as long as it was obvious that they had actually done the readings. Oh well live and learn but I’m pretty sure there are some Jenni voodoo dolls being made as we speak to be burnt in effigy. Well one can only hope for a better show in their assignments but I’m not holding my breath as some of them seem to feel that it is OK to submit a piece of assessment with spelling errors and lack of referencing suitable to 3rd year. So that’s me whingeing – will catch up soon. Jen x
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Glad to hear you are feeling better. This certainly is a busy time of year and it’s only going to get busier. Hopefully you will be back blogging soon, I have missed your posts. 🙂
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Cross fingers – once I clear this last lot of marking that’s it for the year. Yippeeeee
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It so good to know you are still there!! 🙂
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Yep still here despite being hidden by a mound of work – oh well the things we do so we can do what we want later. 😀
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🙂
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Good to see you, Jenni. Dig out from the mountain of assessments and hit that faux cowbell while you grade your students! When that BOC album came out too long ago, some clown dressed up as the Grim Reaper to promo sales outside the record store at my college student union so of course I had to sing the lyrics at full voice and go up and shake his hand, much to the amazement of the passersby, who gave me a cheer that I assumed was for my chutzpah, not my singing talent. 🙂
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Would have paid cashy money to see that sight. 😀
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I think I scarred the Grim Reaper’s psyche, Jenni! 🙂
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Good to hear you’re still on the planet. I’m looking forward to hearing a good rant once you’ve dug out. Be well Jenn!
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Trust me I have quite a few stored up – things are NOT going well here in Oz. Well you see what I mean soon I guess. Take care and thanks.
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Loved the song. Glad you are on the mend.
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Midterms?
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End of semester final assignments, tutorial participation marking but no need for final exams for this subject for which I’m grateful. I really hate marking exams. The students are driving me nuts BUT I finished last night and have spent the day uploading the marks to the admin site so now I am done until first semester 2015.
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I know the feeling. If I could get out of grading, I think I’d have the perfect job, but man, that is a huge “if.”
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I think what makes me get snarky about it is the sheer laziness of some of the students. Not all of them by any stretch but too many hand in papers with typos, spelling mistakes and referencing that belongs in pre-school not 3rd year bachelor degrees. I mean honestly how can someone think that 4 references [two of which are internet links] is a reasonable amount of research for the paper worth 40% of their grade. It just baffles me.
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What kinds of students? Hmm, the ones who don’t mind getting F’s? 😉
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I wish!! We’ve got this new directive call ‘strength based marking”. Basically we shouldn’t hurt their delicate little egos by telling them that their work is up to scratch. I failed a handful of my class this semester and the uni powers that be wanted me to change that to a pass conceded.
I did for 2 of them but held my ground for the rest. What on earth do they think these kids will learn from that. I can tell you what – you’ll still scrape through even with crappy work and it’s a slap in the face to those who try but end up with a pass or a credit simply because that’s where they fall on the grid performance wise.
Nothing wrong with a getting a pass but damned if I’m giving some little shit who can’t be bothered that same marks as those who tried hard.
Whew!!! I’m obviously still pissed about it. I did have a handful of High distinctions whose work was extremely impressive so it evens out a bit. Do you have ‘strength based marking’ where you lecture??
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Kind of sort of. The powers that be prefer I not fail students whenever possible, but mostly leave me alone if I can prove the student I want to fail didn’t even try.
As far as students who put effort in, I’m actually the nicest grader my university mandated curve allows me to be. 25% are A’s and I make those all A+. 40% are B’s and I make those all B+. The rest are all C’s or worse and, unless a student has actively pissed me off, I give those kids C+’s.
The reason I do so (and only in my home department, btw) is because the kids in my department pretty much always work their asses off and I won’t hurt a hard worker if I can help it.
The kids in general ed who show up hung over half the time – yeah, they don’t get nice grader Ben.
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Take care Jenni! 🙂
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