I am tired. No, take that back. That is too much of an understatement of the problem
I am exhausted. I am so exhausted that I was halfway through writing an essay about the semester when I realized that for all intents and purposes, I’d written the essay before, two years ago. It might be time to check out those cruises from sydney; I definitely need a break!
So I’ll post that and go take a catnap while you read it and be back when you are done.
Originally posted as part of Teacher’s Lounge.
It’s not like I didn’t know it was going to happen. It happens every year. I have too much work to do in the remainder of the semester and too little time left in which to do it. I will spend today attacking the Big Pile O’ Homework ™ which in some cases should have been graded by this past Thursday at the latest (Visual Basic .NET programming), but in most cases needs to go back no later than Monday (Java programming) or Tuesday (computer literacy…what could be more fun than grading 11 student PowerPoints (at least 12-slides each)). The usual suspects among my students are lurking out there with another ton of homework to bury me in because they just can’t bear to turn anything in on time because of unresolved issues of rebelliousness). And there is an avalanche of student Final Projects headed this way (14 literacy student web sites, 9 VB .NET final projects (at least 4 forms each), 8 Java take home finals (4 programs each, 3 of which were individually written for the particular student and the other matter of the student’s choice, so they all all be distinct when it comes time to grade), and 9 multimedia programming term projects).
I know you at larger educational institutions (which includes some high schools, we are a small school, but that’s what makes us cuddly) will mock me for the apparent lack of numbers (I remember classes of 65 when I taught college algebra at Central Arkansas), but this truly will cause me to be totally immersed in grading for the coming 18 days, except for those periods of time in which I arise to actually teach classes to these students or hold lab days. Reaching “lab days” is a major accomplishment in all my classes, since it means that I’ve run out of things to teach them for the semester. Multimedia hits “lab days” on Monday, when I finish teaching the ever-so-much fun subject of Property Lists (fortunately the graphics we are using to learn this subject are stunning). Java should hit “lab days” on Monday as well, except for the Quiz (= somewhat less threatening than Exam) they still have to take over menus and using the clipboard (I offered them another quiz to replace the worst of their first five. Of course, said quiz is not written yet and will take considerable consideration, reflection and t-i-m-e). VB should hit “lab days” on Tuesday, when I can finally teach them ASP .NET, one hopes, after I spent 5 hours yesterday learning how to navigate the fire-walls in order to even be able to create an .aspx file. Fortunately the head techie and the guy who teaches Internet and Web Publishing have already been down this path when they discovered the conflict about three weeks ago, so hope springs eternal.
And I swear if one person asks me how my Christmas shopping is going, I am going to get violent—and I am a devout pacifist. Gandhi would scream if he had to go shopping around here. Plus I have no time to shop (well, I do, but that would interfere with my blogging addiction) and no, I haven’t a clue what I would like for Christmas. And actually that’s not true either, because every year I want exactly the same thing and that is for it all to be OVER. Having some money left when its over wound be icing. So please, really, take my credit card and go shopping for yourself, okay? And buy something for me if you’d like.
What? Oh, right….you are back. That, of course, is so totally wrong, so totally two years ago. Multimedia and Java are on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Visial Basic is on Mondays and Wednesdays this year. And I have 17 computer literacy students, 11 Java students, 7 Visual Basic students and 6 in Multimedia. So it is so totally not even close to the same thing. Really. I’ve already thrown up my hands and declared Lab Days for the rest of the semester…except for the Java quiz on Tuesday.
I’m toast. Stick a fork in me…or should that be a butter knife. And give me a plate of mixed metaphors for lunch.
Thinking forward to the holidays and gift-giving? You are kidding, right?
Art Link Pinwheel #1
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Well, okay. But I warn you that today is a split personality day, as I also am expected to be Turing Test.