well that's over, thank all the stars

[lunabee34]

I am done with teaching and grading and being miserable! LOL I was teaching two second session classes this semester to accommodate Feefers, and these classes compress 16 weeks of learning into 8. I have to give the same volume of assignments and reading and all that jazz as I would in a regular semester, just in far less time. One of the classes was online, and the other face-to-face class met daily Monday through Thursday. I was also teaching two full session online classes. For the online class, the big assignments were all due at the end of the class as in 24 hours before grades were due. Naturally, our online teaching platform broke the weekend before, and left everyone in a tizzy (most especially me!). I did not have to give any incompletes, but it was touch and go there for awhile. I did, however, make myself so anxious grading and worrying about everything, that I was sick to my stomach all Monday night. :(

But I have written on my Yuletide story all day, and I am almost finished with it! I love Yuletide. I always end up with the best prompts and have the most fun writing. I should finish tonight or tomorrow.

Now for a belated meme answer:

lyrstzha wants to know what fandoms I wish more people would follow me into. I wish more of you were into New Girl, The Mindy Project and NCIS but I'm not really in the fandom for any of those shows. Hmmmmm...... more of you should definitely be writing The Hobbit/LoTR fanfic. *nods decisively*

Comments

[likeadeuce]

What kinds of Tolkienverse fics are you interested in?

I basically want ALL of the stories about the people of Laketown b/t now and the next Hobbit movie.

[lunabee34]

I haven't seen Hobbit 2 yet; we go on Monday. I am so excited!!!!!!!!!

I like a variety of fics. I really dig the ones that are coming out of movieverse and have built up their own fanon about dwarf beards and beads and all that jazz. I also like the stories that are coming more out of the books and are a bit more focused on the mythology and history of Middle Earth (but not too much; that's where JRR loses me).

What I am not interested in are fics about characters in the Simarillion because I haven't read it, fics about elves whose names maybe appear one time in the books LOL, and fics that are too much like the way Tolkien writes. I think he does an excellent job of world building, generating a history and mythology which informs that world building, and in writing plot. I think he's pretty terrible at character creation and character development. I was so sad when I realized on this latest re-read of the trilogy that all my favorite moments from the movies are things that Peter Jackson made up instead of being from the books. LOL

I have mostly been reading Thorin/Bilbo (like super melodramatical angstical wackadoodleness): lots of do over or do differently fics. But as with anything else, I love all the pairings + gen.

[havocthecat]

these classes compress 16 weeks of learning into 8. I have to give the same volume of assignments and reading and all that jazz as I would in a regular semester, just in far less time.

THOSE HAVE BEEN THE CLASSES I HAVE BEEN IN. They are so hard on me! I imagine they must be hard on the teachers too.

[lunabee34]

OMG yes! I mean, there's at least one pro from the teacher side:

1. Whatever your teaching load for the semester is, you have half a semester when you're not teaching that class.

But many cons:

1. You have to figure out a way to compress the content in such a way that it still makes sense and you don't sacrifice anything vital and you also give students enough time to complete assignments.

2. You have to return assignments immediately so students can use your feedback to complete the next assignment so the grading is a nightmare.

3. If students are not motivated, able to follow directions, good readers, and self-starters, they can start to fall behind really quickly and it's so hard to make up time lost in a class like this.

Overall, I think these classes are good fits for non-traditional students who are committed to school and don't need to be cajoled into doing their assignments. I can't imagine how taxing they must be on a student's time though; I definitely would not have taken a class like this as a student I don't think.

[havocthecat]

They are absolutely hell to take as a student, but I do manage to finish my program in half the time, so I'm really invested in that idea. But if I weren't able to do the work on my own without waiting for anyone to handhold me, it would be impossible to do.

[zulu]

Yay, congrats on being finished! Oh, wow, those half-term courses are the hardest. And all the marking's the same in half the time, ughhh. Time to take a well-deserved break. :D

[lunabee34]

yay! Are you done now too?

The grading is brutal. Oh man. I don't ever want to teach two of these at the same time again.

[zulu]

Yep, all finished! Technically! Except for all the prep I already want to do for next semester, just to get a jump on things... I'm trying to give myself a break but it's challenging to break through all these Must Be Efficient And Productive defenses.