(no subject)
So I'm tired, I'm cranky, I'm still PMSing after a WEEK and my period STILL hasn't started, and I'm grading. And I'm stuck feeling like a badguy.
I have several students who didn't do as well on their portfolios as I'd hoped and several that I have to check for "lazy plagiarism"--basically being lazy in paraphrases and quoting, which results in a drop 2 letter grades from whatever they WOULD have had on that particular paper. And among them is the portfolio of a sports student. She did virtually NO revisions, did not include her graded rough drafts, and did not proofread at all. To the point where I can't always understand what she's saying. She had C-D averages on all her papers beforehand, but generally speaking, if you revise, I'll pump the final paper grade up at least one letter grade. She didn't. Which means a C-D average on the portfolio, which is half of her grade.
The thing is, normally, this wouldn't bother me. HOWEVER, she's probably here on a sports scholarship and probably provisional, which means if she doesn't do well enough, she loses her dream (b/c her first paper was all about her dream of going pro and how her siblings failed because they didn't put in academic effort) and possibly doesn't get into LSU at all. So there's guilt there. But even more so in that the athletics department sent out paperwork early in the semester to check on student progress. Had I filled it out, they would have been aware of the fact that she was borderline and taken steps for her improvement. Unfortunately, I forgot about it until it was too late (which is easy to do when you have to do 8 and you don't actually have real grades to give them because you're on a portfolio system). So, if her GPA drops too low because of my class, I may be challenged by her or the department. I have a solid defense except for that damn paperwork.
At the same time though, I don't think it's right that provisional and athletic students should have people saying, "Remember to do your homework," or "Gee, your teacher says you should do this--maybe you should go talk to him/her or visit the writing center." BULLSHIT. They're adults, and they don't deserve preferential PARENTAL guidance in college. They should take responsibility for their work. So they have practice. Tough shit. Other sports students in my class did perfectly fine.
But still. If I had filled out the paperwork or confronted her myself, it might have been avoided. So basically, I'm pissed at her for being lazy and irresponsible, and pissed at myself for ultimately being the same.
Oh, and Mark, I apologize, but with all this stupidity, I really don't feel like being social at the moment and risk snapping at you. And I'm not really mad at you, it's just with all of this, I don't feel like being an alarm clock with a snooze button when I've got things to do. If you tell me "no later than ___," that's it. Sorry--it's silly for me to be like this, but yeah. Like I said, I'm cranky, and I just need to finish all of this and get it behind me so I can stop being a PMS teacher-bitch. ^_^;;
I have several students who didn't do as well on their portfolios as I'd hoped and several that I have to check for "lazy plagiarism"--basically being lazy in paraphrases and quoting, which results in a drop 2 letter grades from whatever they WOULD have had on that particular paper. And among them is the portfolio of a sports student. She did virtually NO revisions, did not include her graded rough drafts, and did not proofread at all. To the point where I can't always understand what she's saying. She had C-D averages on all her papers beforehand, but generally speaking, if you revise, I'll pump the final paper grade up at least one letter grade. She didn't. Which means a C-D average on the portfolio, which is half of her grade.
The thing is, normally, this wouldn't bother me. HOWEVER, she's probably here on a sports scholarship and probably provisional, which means if she doesn't do well enough, she loses her dream (b/c her first paper was all about her dream of going pro and how her siblings failed because they didn't put in academic effort) and possibly doesn't get into LSU at all. So there's guilt there. But even more so in that the athletics department sent out paperwork early in the semester to check on student progress. Had I filled it out, they would have been aware of the fact that she was borderline and taken steps for her improvement. Unfortunately, I forgot about it until it was too late (which is easy to do when you have to do 8 and you don't actually have real grades to give them because you're on a portfolio system). So, if her GPA drops too low because of my class, I may be challenged by her or the department. I have a solid defense except for that damn paperwork.
At the same time though, I don't think it's right that provisional and athletic students should have people saying, "Remember to do your homework," or "Gee, your teacher says you should do this--maybe you should go talk to him/her or visit the writing center." BULLSHIT. They're adults, and they don't deserve preferential PARENTAL guidance in college. They should take responsibility for their work. So they have practice. Tough shit. Other sports students in my class did perfectly fine.
But still. If I had filled out the paperwork or confronted her myself, it might have been avoided. So basically, I'm pissed at her for being lazy and irresponsible, and pissed at myself for ultimately being the same.
Oh, and Mark, I apologize, but with all this stupidity, I really don't feel like being social at the moment and risk snapping at you. And I'm not really mad at you, it's just with all of this, I don't feel like being an alarm clock with a snooze button when I've got things to do. If you tell me "no later than ___," that's it. Sorry--it's silly for me to be like this, but yeah. Like I said, I'm cranky, and I just need to finish all of this and get it behind me so I can stop being a PMS teacher-bitch. ^_^;;