Comments on: Cruelest Month

By: Jonathan Dresner

Jonathan Dresner — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:21:31 +0000

I was thinking about this post recently: I feel much the same way. In fact, I’ve long felt that there was a season missing from my personal calendar: Spring. When the “Spring” semester starts, we’re deep in winter (whatever that means wherever we are), but when it ends, and we come up and look at our shadows, it’s pretty much Summer.

By: Rohan Maitzen

Rohan Maitzen — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:59:48 +0000

And we were brilliant enough to schedule two department meetings on curriculum reform for mid-April…

One of the must frustrating aspects of grading for me is that I spend so much longer on weaker papers than I do on good ones. OK, they need my help more, but the strong students would probably appreciate detailed feedback more…but it’s just such a relief to be able to write ‘yes, good, yes, good example, well put’ in the margins instead of labouring over every sentence.

By: Fats Durston

Fats Durston — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:02:57 +0000

35? Big classes. (Or have you put off grading long enough that it’s two rounds….)

-Fats Durston, whose next student question will be, “Whend’we get our papers back?”

By: AKShutt

AKShutt — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:20:47 +0000

Tim,

I read your blog at least once a week and enjoy everything you write. I’m also in the middle of grading, and finding the work slow-going. I spend about a half hour on each paper–more or less–depending on the quality of the writing.

By: Sdorn

Sdorn — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:51:13 +0000

Imagine you go through all that… and then your children’s birthdays are both in May, and you have some summer obligations, and your anniversary is in May, and there are the end-of-the-year obligations at your kids’ schools…

That’s my typical spring. 😉

By: AndrewSshi

AndrewSshi — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:48:00 +0000

I like to think of marking as the price you pay for winding up in a career in which you get paid to read and write about stuff you like. And at least your Swathmore kids probably know how to punctuate and form complete sentences.