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

[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.