arguchik | Whew!

I just finished compiling and submitting final grades for all 80 of my students. WOW! That was a piece of work, man. I really enjoyed teaching this class. My only frustration is that I could not give each individual student the kind of attention and consideration I would normally prefer. There were too many of them, my contact hours with them were too few, and my weekly stack of grading was too tall, for me to get to know them as individuals. I got to know a handful of the more vocal ones, the outstanding writers, etc., but the vast majority of them kind of blur together. I don't feel great about that...but I did my best, and I'm happy with how the class went.

There isn't much to be done about these issues. I am going to make recommendations to the program administrators about some things I think would improve the class, but some aspects of it are just built in. My little curricular bit was a small part of a much larger, complex program--that's not going to change. They can't build in more contact hours. I would like to see them hire a second instructor and break the group into two sections--that would render the grading load a lot more manageable, and would also make class discussions more productive. Plus...speaking for myself, I think I'd be able to learn and retain the names and faces of 40 students, where 80 was just too many.

Anyway, I guess that's about it for today. Tomorrow we leave for the great American East. I'm really looking forward to the trip--not least because I really love traveling with

glaucon. We complement each other well, I think, as long as only one of us experiences the almost inevitable travel-induced stress-out at a time--LOL.

Now I'm going to spend a little time chilling out with my friend L's dog (I've been dogsitting for her over in West Seattle since Tuesday). Currently she is curled up next to me on the couch, sleeping. I'm going to put on a podcast and knit for an hour or so, then I'm going to take a bath (L has no shower), eat lunch, and play the afternoon by ear. I'd really love to finish my February Lady Sweater today--I don't know if I can manage it. I have a whole sleeve left to knit, plus the sewing on of the 3 buttons. There's a very real possibility that my hands will cramp up before I finish even half of this sleeve. Plus, I have a couple of errands I need run before 5pm. Thus, it will likely be my plane knitting for tomorrow.