God, I hate grading. Why am I such a fucking asshole about accepting late work? I wind up with too many late reports to grade and not enough time to grade them. And then the little shits have the nerve to ask me half a dozen times in as many hours whether or not they got As. If it takes them 15 weeks to do the work, can't I have 15 hours to grade them?I tried to bait them into turning in more work earlier by concocting this appointment schedule for this week so they could come and discuss their grades. It half worked. I got more work turned in the penultimate week than I usually do. But I shot myself in the foot because I had to pull an all nighter just to get a respectable amount of the work graded for the students who made appointments today.
There will be knocks any minute and I'm not even close to finished with the 1st appointment. The 1st appointment is an ESL student who worked hard and was polite and respectful all semester, but Jesus Christ, I have no fucking clue what this lab report is supposed to say. I didn't notice the language problem on the short answer assignments, but this lengthy written report is like... well let's put it this way: I've never taken an anthropology class and I'm more qualified to grade cave paintings than whatever this is.
God, I hate finals week. And I hate being such a fucking asshole.
PS my bad karma has me in a freezing cold office with my hands under my fat ass waiting for the heating plant to fix the heat. I can't even grade b/c it's too cold to take my hands out from underneath my rear-end for more than 35 seconds at a time.
ReplyDeleteAnd obviously fucking around on the internet is the best use of those 35 second intervals.
I think being a flake must be contagious. They made me one of them.
Darth Snowflake: Join me, and we can put off deadlines together!
ReplyDeleteAdjunct Prof Skywalker: I’ll never join you!
Darth Snowflake: Dean ObiWan never told you what happened to your advisor did he?
Adjunct Prof Skwalker: He told me enough, he told me you denied him tenure!
Darth Snowflake: No, I AM YOUR ADVISOR!
Adjunct Prof Skywalker: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Darth Snowflake: Search your CV, you know it to be true!
My students lose one letter grade for every 24-hour period their work is late, with only very rare exceptions. I lock the dropbox at midnight on the due date, and after that they have to put their papers in a drobox marked "Late Essays." That alone seems to get their attention.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my syllabus says that late essays will be graded at the instructor's discretion (that is, I'll get to it when I freakin' feel like it).
I never comment on late essays unless there's a valid and documented excuse for the lateness. Sometimes a student will ask for feedback upon receiving the grade and that's fine--I'll put in the time for that. But I'm not putting in any more time than I have to for kids who can't be bothered to do their best work or heed deadlines. I save my time and energy for the students who are making an effort.
Holy Shit, Middle-Aged & Morose, that was frikkin awesome!!
ReplyDeleteI do what Surly does, sans the late paper drop box, cuz I don't do drop boxes. Anything later than 3 days gets an F and no comments.
ReplyDeleteThis the wife of 'Aware and Scared." (Mrs. Aware? Madame Scared? I need my own handle.) When I was teaching High School one of the kindly older teachers told me to take a shot of vodka before Parent Teacher meetings. I recoiled, being so bright eyed and bushy tailed I want to vomit at the memory. By second semester I was buying. Dear Wombat, of whom I have heard so much, I send you an emotional Snuggie and bottle of Absolut.
ReplyDelete