Various Sundries

This week so far has been busy and hectic, but it's settling down somewhat and that is, as both Martha Stewart and Horatio Caine would say, A Good Thing.

Yesterday was the last day of the semester for the course I've been teaching. I got all the final projects graded and was in the process of doing a portfolio assessment that's required by the school when I got an email informing me that one of my students just dropped the class. On the last day of class. With a solid B as a final grade (though that wasn't something they knew for sure, they should have suspected as they have access to their average as the class progresses.) Dropping means a WF because we're way past the drop date. Huh?

I submitted a grade change request to see if I could them the B that they earned. I'm just so confused.

I am, however, glad for the class to be finished. It's fun to be back teaching and I'll definitely do another class...just as soon as I'm finished with my own classes. Because trying to stay on top of grading and all the class management type stuff while also trying to stay on top of my own homework? Challenging.

My homework is going well - sorta. I've just about finished the first annotated bibliography assignment for one class, though I still need one supplemental article for the chapter on the social nature of learning. Bleh. Learning isn't a social activity. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I don't really care what philosophers and navel gazers disagree with me. I learn better on my own. But then, I already know I'm weird...so maybe that explains it. Regardless, I need to try and find something that acts as a good supplemental article for the group grope theory of education.

The other class is also going fine, though I haven't made as much progress on my database design assignment as I should have. Hopefully I can try and knock that out this weekend. (I might have Monday off...jury's still out. The government is off - and I'm on a government site - but in my company's employee manual it's not a holiday. I emailed for clarification and so far the silence has been deafening. I'm pulling for being off, though I can work at home if I have to work, so that's almost as good.)

And the project class? Yeah, haven't started that project yet. Need to get rear into gear.

Though I did get feedback on my idea paper from my adviser - he likes it, wanted only one change (which I made...I had chosen too small of a sample size and while it would have worked, he worried that people would discount any findings based on that. Reasonable - so I upped it to something that I *think* I should still be able to realistically achieve. So now he's sharing it with two other folks who he thinks would be good committee members. Yay! Progress!)

Finally - if you need a smile today, I recommend listening to this - it always cheers me up. Pun intended.