11/13: What I Accomplished Today

I usually give you the abbreviated version of the day. Today I'll do a more complete version.

1. Got up because Co-Vivant was on the phone with tech support to resolve a Tivo issue. While she was on hold, she told me she had already made a phone call that resolved a financial question we had had. I'm not out of bed yet, and so far, the day is Co-Vivant, 2; Me, 0.

2. Bathed and groomed. Put on a little outfit. Drove to Costco and had a slice of pizza and a soda because we didn't have any good sammich food.

3. Went to the office. Read my e-mails. Finished grading the class that was to meet tonight; I had already graded the in-class work last Wednesday, so today, I just read the papers that hadn't hit the plagiarism check yet and graded the online work. Updated the gradesheet and online interface with the work that will be due next week. I also printed each student's gradesheet so we could verify we're all in agreement about what's been turned in and what hasn't.

Prepared for tonight's class, verifying I had already ordered and received all handouts necessary. I had. Printed my notes for tonight and plopped them into my notebook. Skimmed the reading and the handouts and made sure I remembered how to do this one.

Checked both online classes for e-mails, discussion board posts, or other outstanding issues. Clear. Graded the course I usually grade on Tuesday (sensibly enough). This involves checking quiz grades, entering them from the online interface into Excel, and sending mail to students who have achieved particular milestones so they know they're making progress and don't feel like they're floundering all by themselves in a cold, lonely sea. (Yes, I could just have the online interface itself calculate the grades without the Excel conversion, but I think the class benefits if I actually look at each student's work each week instead of letting the computer do all the calculations. There's probably a happy medium here between automation and my involvement, but I hope to err on the side of over-involvement.)

Read my mail and ordered an exam copy of a text I'm interested in seeing. Verified that I was unable to receive an exam copy of a book I've decided to teach from next semester; found a cheap used copy on Amazon and ordered it.

Worked on the November placement data from the beginning of the month through last Friday.

Worked on compiling the rosters to make it quicker to compile student placement data at the end of the term.

Worked on the faculty survey I sent out a few weeks ago, trying to solve some student mysteries colleagues asked about. Along the way, I decided I'm going to have to gather data to see how students progress from the end of the English as a Second Language Sequence into the Composition sequence; put together rosters for that course from a year ago so there's enough time to gauge success.

Taught the class. I put the opening question on the board for them to answer while I handed back last week's in-class work and papers as well as the gradesheets I printed this afternoon. We discussed logistics (the holiday schedule for the rest of the term, what online work needs to be completed, what courses they should be thinking about for next term). Discussed the reading they were to complete for today; they actually did a pretty credible job on a difficult selection.

I do vocabulary lists in my Comp I and Comp II classes. I didn't used to, and I still think it's irritating (it's college, for heaven's sake), but on the other hand, they simply don't have the word knowledge to be expected to function in academia, let alone the adult, professional world at large. In 101, I have 12 lists, 20 items each, of Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes that are common. (We did this my junior year in high school; not only has it come in very handy, but it was sort of fun. We had two matching sets as each quiz, one matching the morpheme [we didn't use this word] to its meaning and another matching words that consisted of two more of the vocabulary items with what we thought those words had to mean. Rudimentary critical thinking; huzzah!) In 102, I have 12 lists of 20 items each I basically pulled out of thin air: three of Latin roots, three of Latin expressions, two of Greek Mythology, one of Classical history, one of French expressions, one of Biblical expressions, and one of the leftover stuff that didn't fit into the other lists. Today was Biblical expressions, so we talked about things like "Prodigal Son" and "Doubting Thomas." (No, you cannot assume that students know the references, and I can't imagine trying to read adult books and articles without that sort of basic information. Again, I feel a little cheesy having to do it, but as Grandma would say, "If it is to be, it is to be me.")

The students also had a sketch, a rough version of their last paper, due. I read them and discussed each with its writer while everyone else worked a crossword puzzle. (When I finish with each writer, that writer can turn in the puzzle and leave. That way, the people who are too friggin' lazy to get their acts together and pull together a draft can sit there and work the friggin' puzzle until the people who have done their work have already left.)


That's the portion of the day I usually describe as "Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class."

5. Came home and worked on my Pogo badges; tonight's badges were in Word Search Daily and Dice City Rollers. We watched some shows from Comedy Central while I worked on my badges.

6. Co-Vivant has to be up in the morning for her networking group, so she went to bed. Started an episode of The Bob Newhart Show for her to listen to whilst she sleeps.

7. Played World of Warcraft. The 2.3 patch was live today. It wasn't too much work to get the interface back the way I like it, although two of my add-ons, Auctioneer and Gatherer, aren't compatible yet, and it looks like Auctioneer may take a bit since the Auction House has changed substantially. I did the mail check and stats check I would have done last night had the server not gone down for maintenance and patch initiation. I also started the Level 35 Human Mage, finishing the Thandol Span sequence. (I thought I'd already done that, but I guess not.) I worked on her Blacksmithing a little bit.

8. While I played (during griffin flights and such), I read a little more in The Last Empress. Interesting book; she does a particularly good job indicating the isolation the empress feels, as we feel it as well.

9. Tried to play a little Miss Management, but couldn't get a rhythm. Finished level 34 in Build-a-Lot; thought of a technique for 35, but don't have the patience to pull it off.

Now I am tired, so I will go to bed. While I am falling asleep, I will watch today's Ellen show. I also have the Sunday Night Fox animation lineup (except King of the Hill) on the back Tivo, so if I have the energy, I might watch one of those. I also watch Ugly Betty and the TMC shows about big families back there because my Co-Vivant doesn't particularly like to watch those shows.