Field Notes
So the past three nights, I've been at school til past midnight, mostly grading til my head started splitting. I returned a class set of essays today. 21 students' essays, and for each one I filled out an evaluation form and wrote detailed personal comments with encouragements, questions, and suggestions for how they could improve for the next essay. I also spent an hour this morning reviewing their essays and developing an exercise to target some of the most common problems. Finally, I told them in class that if any of them were disappointed in their grade, we could meet and they could write an additional essay, and I would replace their lower grade with the new grade because I want them all to have the most opportunity to improve.
And STILL I'm fielding complaints. "My dad is a very respective [sic] writer, and he looked at my essay. If he didn't find anything wrong with it, I don't know what there could be." Oh, sorry--I forgot to base my grades this time on the Parent Survey (Question 1: What is your occupation? Question 2: What grade do you think your child should get?) . . . my mistake!
I love teaching, but . . . argh. It's the ones who want to argue rather than actually learn and get better that make me crazy. Still, he's a nice kid--just needs to grow up a little.
On the other hand, one of my best students came by today to say he's thinking about going to grad school in English because he wants a job that really means something. He asked me to be his advisor since he's becoming an English major, which is nice because it means I'll get to keep working with him (I like advising--one career path I considered was counseling, and I get to do a little through advising. Just enough because I don't truly have the patience to really do it full time). I should go home thinking about him instead of about the other kid. Ah, the mature young scholar, with such excellent taste in faculty advisors. ;)
And STILL I'm fielding complaints. "My dad is a very respective [sic] writer, and he looked at my essay. If he didn't find anything wrong with it, I don't know what there could be." Oh, sorry--I forgot to base my grades this time on the Parent Survey (Question 1: What is your occupation? Question 2: What grade do you think your child should get?) . . . my mistake!
I love teaching, but . . . argh. It's the ones who want to argue rather than actually learn and get better that make me crazy. Still, he's a nice kid--just needs to grow up a little.
On the other hand, one of my best students came by today to say he's thinking about going to grad school in English because he wants a job that really means something. He asked me to be his advisor since he's becoming an English major, which is nice because it means I'll get to keep working with him (I like advising--one career path I considered was counseling, and I get to do a little through advising. Just enough because I don't truly have the patience to really do it full time). I should go home thinking about him instead of about the other kid. Ah, the mature young scholar, with such excellent taste in faculty advisors. ;)
posted by Tara | 6:09 PM
3 Comments:
I love your tidbits about your students -- I just can't believe the things they say.
I heard one recently about a student who made an appointment because she did not understand how she could have possibly gotten such a low grade on the exam. She and the prof went through it question by question and she agreed that she had indeed gotten may wrong answers. She also agreed that the math done to calculate her grade was right. But still, "It's impossible! I just don't understand it! That test seemed easy!" She said she was just not the kind of person who gets low grades on tests.
Julie, me neither!
Ms. Comma . . . yes. I keep getting students who tell me, "But I've never had a problem on an essay before!" Sometimes I know they've had colleagues of mine whose standards are similar, but otherwise I'd never have known from their wide-eyed, crestfallen faces as they imply that I'm the one with the strange ideas about writing.
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