Need I say more?
Archive for December, 2004
I am sure, internet, that you are waiting anxiously to hear how my grading is going. Well, I finally finished the Shakespeare exams. Hooray. Now on to my students’ papers.
But first, I thought you might enjoy a few of the malapropisms I ran across in the Shakespeare essay exams:
“shrewd” for “shrew” and/or “shrewish”
“woe” or “woeing” for “woo” or “wooing” (this one was very common and resulted in lots of funny sentences)
“thrown” for “throne” (also very common)
“emphatic” for “emblematic”
And here are a couple of fun words I ran across:
“epical”
“consciencely”
Okay, now back to the grading.
Temporary Halt to Production; Rebound Expected Soon.
Published by December 19th, 2004 in Teaching. 0 CommentsWell, I kind of stalled out last night after getting through only 15 essays’ part II. I really wish there was some way for me to just ignore my need to sleep during finals week. I used to be able to do it.
Anyway, I am back on track. I now have been through part II of 25 essays, which leaves 30 more. I think that should be three hours’ worth of work. And then my goal is to get through 6 of my students’ essays later this afternoon. The rest can wait until tomorrow.
In other news, let’s all cross our fingers that the Vikings win today…
Supervisors Report Slow but Steady Progress.
Published by December 18th, 2004 in Teaching. 0 CommentsI have graded the first half of 33 of the total 55 Shakespeare exams. Today, I expect to finish these exams, or at least get all but about 2 hours’ worth done. I will keep you updated.
I have graded 1 of my students’ essays. 18 to go (most of which won’t be handed in until 5:00 this evening).
That’s about all, I guess.
Oh, also, Will and I watched Elf last night. Awesome.
UPDATE:
I am now finished with the first half of all 55 exams. Huzzah! Now I will go and shower (lucky for those of you who will be at Jean’s cookie-baking party in a couple of hours).
Today I have also:
run (but not folded) 3 loads of laundry.
loaded (but not run) the dishwasher.
tried lots of different tactics to get Otto to stop barking and bothering me. Finally, after many treats, tossings of the ball, etc., he is sleeping on the couch.
Well, it’s that time again. Finals.
True, finals are not as bad for me as they used to be. In college they seemed pretty bad and involved staying up all night and not showering for several days, but they also involved free food in every dorm, profs and administration serving late-night breakfast in the caf, and all of the goofiness that ensues when 3000 students live together in a total of 10 buildings on top of a small hill.
Finals the first year of grad school seemed (at the time) like the worst finals ever. There were the feelings of insecurity, remaining unsure of expectations, and the fact that I had to write papers on Tristram Shandy, Sartor Resartus (!!), and Spenser’s Epithalamion all at the same time. Plus pass a final exam on Old English. Oh, and while I was writing that Sartor Resartus paper, I left a candle burning on my desk downstairs when I stumbled up to bed for a couple of hours. Almost burned down the whole house.
But then, then, came the second year of grad school, when there were not only papers to write and tests to take, there were also papers and tests to grade. Ugh. I won’t even get into the details of just how bad this was, except to say that on one night I graded 54 5-page papers, then (without going to sleep) started writing my paper on . . . wow, I can’t even remember what I wrote that paper on.
Anyway, the point of all of this is to say that blessedly, I am past that phase in my life and now only have to grade during finals. I have decided (since I haven’t been posting much lately) that I will post frequent updates on my grading progress over the next 5 days. The big push doesn’t start until tomorrow, when I get a batch of Shakespeare exams to grade (these are not my own students; this is my side-job for the semester, you know, the one that pays the big bucks). Then my own students hand in their final essays on Saturday evening.
For starters, I thought I would share my schedule for today:
9:00 a.m.: Meet with contractor, plumber, and electricians about bathroom remodeling job. (I am afraid we might be getting a bit out of control about this ($$$$$), but we have been living with a crappy bathroom and (apparently) seriously dangerous wiring in the basement for 4+ years, and I suppose it’s time to fix some of this stuff.)
12:30-1:30 p.m.: Meet with my student who is really struggling to help make sure he passes the class. Beforehand, I need to read the two papers he is working on.
1:30-3:30 p.m.: Be available to meet with any other students who want to discuss their revisions with me.
7:00 p.m.- whenever: Small Christmas/End-of-the-semester get-together at our house. Yay! Will made this German chocolate cake especially for the event. There will also be mulled wine.
So, that’s my day in a nutshell. Empty moments will be filled by laundry, cleaning, or (perhaps) writing a few more pages of the dissertation chapter. (!) I’ll let you know how it goes.
You will sink in a mire. You like to think you’re
normal, but deep down you really just want to
strip off your clothes and roll around in
chicken fat.
What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?
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Some cool things that have happened this week:
Published by December 11th, 2004 in Random. 0 Comments1. I finished grading the final drafts of my students’ second essayson Monday morning. Too bad I got the second drafts of their third essays on Friday. Ugh.
2. We put up our Christmas tree. I keep making Will sit with me in the livingroom with all the lights off except the tree. Ah, how I love the tree.
3. My beloved Iowa State Cyclones upset 19th-ranked Virginia in basketball Monday, and I just happened to flip to it on ESPN2 in time to see most of the second half. Even though they missed an inordinate number of free-throws (When I stopped counting, they were 8-for-24, but they definitely missed some more after that), they looked excellent. AND, most importantly, they had this killer break-away play involving a blind pass and a HUGE dunk that was SportsCenter’s #1 in the top ten plays of the day. Awesome.
4. We ate out every night: Papa Murphy’s Monday, Noodles Tuesday, J.T. Whitney’s Wednesday, Dorian and Janice’s house on Thursday, and Rosatti’s on Friday.. Mmmmm. (It’s because we’re too busy (lazy) to go to the grocery store so we can cook for ourselves. We did go to Woodman’s today, so we should be able to buck up and prepare some food this week.
5. I made an iPod cozy out of blue Bernat Frenzy yarn. It’s all fuzzy and fraggle-y and it keeps my iPod from getting scratched.
6. I started writing my dissertation. (It’s not as impressive as it sounds, since I should’ve started a long time ago. But I did actually write almost 10 pages, which is more than I’ve done in about a year.)
7. I got to work out with Tiffany, the treadmill queen. Twice. She rules.
8. Will got me a really cool board game for Christmas and we played it last night. It’s callse Carcassonne, and it’s sort of like Settlers of Catan, only easier and you can play it with two players. Super fun. We are wondering where board games have been all our lives.
