You know the kind of semester where you feel like you are constantly getting your ass kicked? The semester that is simultaneously flying by and the longest semester of your life?
That's my semester. I've had bad semesters before, but this one, well, it takes the cake.
I was supposed to finish my dissertation this semester. It's mid-October and I can't remember the last time I actually had a moment or took a moment to even open up a chapter file.
I can't get it together. I can't keep up with the work. This was supposed to be an easy semester. Two sections of the same class that I've taught before and don't really need to prep much. Except there is a lot of prep because the chair doesn't want us to lecture much and wants us to design all these fantastic lesson plans to really reach students on multiple levels that lectures just can't reach. I didn't lecture much to begin with because I prefer activities and discussions and blah, blah, blah, but when your students don't read, it's really hard to get any sort of discussion going because they don't have the basic knowledge required to participate in that discussion. When they don't read, it's really hard to have a successful activity of any sort because, for instance, they can't defend a side in a mock Scopes trial when they don't know who Scopes was and they can't lobby President Wilson for or against the Espionage Act when they don't know what the Espionage Act is or who Wilson is or that there was a giant freaking war of epic proportions taking place.
I can't get into a routine and I need one. It's mid-October and I am stuck in a rut of just barely getting grading finished in time or just barely writing that exam before class or just barely prepping before class or whatever. I am losing my mind.
I need a routine. I like a routine. I don't know how I lost my routine, but I did and I can't seem to get back to it. I miss my routine! I miss having free time. I miss reading blogs to relax or commiserate or just catch up with people that I've met along the way in a million different writing groups. I miss writing groups! I miss College Misery and Jane B and Historiann and Amstr and Bardiac and Notorious PhD and everyone else whose name I didn't mention because it's 12:30 in the morning and I still have 20 test essays left to grade and my brain is fried. FRIED.
Here's my promise to myself: tonight I finish those tests. Tomorrow I grade their multiple-choice (hurrah!) quizzes and fill out the evaluations for the football players and finish grading their blog posts, which I'm actually on top of, surprisingly. Then I get to take a nap and, when I'm all refreshed from a delightful nap cuddled up with Dewey, I'm going to sit down and work out a weekly schedule (including time for yoga and all the annoying little things that crop up and suck up so much time - I'm no fool). After that, I get wine. Lots of wine. And I get to catch up on some blogs. And I get to go to sleep as early as I want. I'd put my money on 8:30, if anyone was taking bets.
I will have my routine and I will stick to it or else this vein is really going to explode and I don't have health insurance (or Medicaid yet), so that would be a problem.
Ok. Back to grading. *sob*
You didn't ask, but I have a couple of tricks for getting my students to read or participate even if they haven't read.
ReplyDelete1. I don't do reading quizzes, but if I assign homework related to the reading, my students tend to do it. It's a generational thing. If they don't get a direct penalty/reward for reading or not reading, they won't do it. I've just had to accept that.
I only give completion grades on homework and don't check for correctness. So that way, they get credit, and I don't have to do any intense grading. Plus, they do the reading and we can have class.
2. I chunk the in-class activities so that each group/student is only working with one part of the reading and they're only responsible for that ONE part, but then they either present to the class or share with another group so that the class winds up discussing the whole reading.
For example, we did an Orwell essay this week. I gave each group 2-4 paragraphs to answer questions on, then we had a whole group discussion about the entire reading with groups talking about their particular section.
So with the homework done, more of them come to class prepared. And with the chunked activities, they can all participate even if they didn't read.
Oh, and if no one wants to answer/participate, then I make them write. That usually solves that problem.
Good luck getting your schedule on track! I've been there before. Usually I just wait for the break to regroup, so you're already ahead of the game.
I've tried assigning reading-related homework. 50% of them don't do it. Of course 50% of them didn't write an essay, which counts for much more than their homework, so I don't know why I thought they would do homework. When we discuss primary source readings in class, I do divide them up like you do and they discuss parts of the reading in the group and then the groups share with the class. Still, that doesn't work very well when they haven't done the background reading in the textbook to be able to understand why someone is talking about becoming an anti-lynching activist because her friend got lynched for owning a store that competed with a white man's store. It's frustrating. The writing option might do the trick, though, so thanks!
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