A softy no more as a result of a broken heart. I believe I found my first occurrence of plagiarism on an assignment. I have not confronted the student, yet, until I get my mentor’s opinion. The sad part is that there was no need! The student had already produced excellent work. And this comes from a teacher! I am crushed.

Continued lack of attention to detail and not following directions is hardening my heart. My grades this week are the result of the block of ice that now lives within my chest.

So week by week, I am learning how to become an online teacher. I need to stay one step ahead of my students and keep my emotions out of the grading process.

Despite all of the assignment requirements and rubrics for assessment, I’m finding myself becoming more subjective with each week. So, I grade one students assignment. It meets the requirements and seems to deserve a high mark, according to the rubric. So I assign the maximum number of points.

And then I open up the next assignment. It goes above and beyond the requirements and can only be described as “superlative.” Now what? It seems like I’m doing this more and more. Unless the student can’t spell, and totally misses the point, I find myself giving out a high grade.

I’m such a softy. Am I spoiling my students?

I suppose teaching a class is somewhat like a marriage. There are things you love about the class, such as students doing more than expected. There are also things that are annoying. You grind your teeth as the same student does the same thing repeatedly that requires your involvement.

Students that don’t follow directions tend to not follow directions on most assignments. First you cut them some slack, send them a personal message, and let them resubmit if you catch it soon enough. Next, you reduce their grade and point out the specific instructions that were overlooked and the grading criteria for not meeting the assignment’s requirements. Then you count to 10, grind your teeth, and mark them down again.

I suppose that these are the students that need your help the most. “A” students generally don’t need any help, they just motor on, recording A after A after A on their assignments.

Am I contributing to the dumbing down of graduate-level classes? Or am I trying to get the most out of all the students? (I like the second answer, but have some doubts.)

Somewhere along the way, my class and I have taken it to a new level. Our posts are becoming more familiar, I see more humor, and I receive more questions about assignments. Many students are revealing parts of their personal lives, as well.

I could live without all of the smiley faces in their messages, however.

Just like f2f classes, students appreciate personal attention. In virtual classes, this usually takes the form of feedback on assignments or personal messages to check in with them.

I always looked forward to receiving feedback from my teachers. Lack of feedback is like Charlie Brown not getting a valentine.

It is tedious and time-consuming to personalize your feedback on returned assignments. I suspect, however, that students will get more out of classes when teachers do make this investment.

…why the √2 is irrational.

Then explain in your own words, the purpose of this assignment.

Then complain in your own words, that you misunderstood the directions. You thought that the directions wanted you to explain in your own words. You did use your own words. They just didn’t explain anything.

When I took this class, my instructor told me that students would have trouble with this assignment. I wonder how many times she has taught this class and not suggested that the assignment be modified?

I plan to explain, in my own words, why this assignment serves no purpose that I can see. The best answer that students can give is that “the √2 is irrational because it is not rational.”

That will be my comment, as well. This problem is irrational because it is not rational.

Well, next to power tools, this is the bestest birthday present ever!

Sherlock of Sherlock’s Stuff, has honored me with the Lovely Blog Award. Thank you for all of your support and friendship. Maybe next year you will consider a router.

I celebrate my 60th birthday tomorrow, June 17. I also celebrate my 2nd year of cancer survival.

Each day is a day to celebrate friendships, family, cat snuggles, orioles in our cherry tree, walks in the cool morning air, and double-scoop, peanut butter cup ice cream cones.

Life is Good.

This was a week I could not have predicted. After my first day of excitement about my new class, I spent the next 5 days in the hospital, not so excited over my staph infection.

My wife was not excited, my doctors were not excited, my nurses were not excited, and most of all, my cats were not excited. In fact, they were very depressed. So my goal for the week was to get home to my cats. My doctors may have had conflicting goals, but I had no control over that.

I had another student drop, but to my surprise, she returned! I think she was worried about my elbow.

Most of the students did an excellent job on their assignments. Some forgot to respond to other students, but they promised to do better next week.

I did my best to add meaningful comments to all of the assignments, but I must admit that the same comment appeared on many. Okay, most of the assignments. I mean, how many different ways can you say “Good job!”

There were far fewer questions to begin week 2, although many still asked if I would let them know if they missed anything. I’m beginning to see students’ personalities emerge, although it is a bit annoying when I see myself in others.

I suspect by the end of week 2, my hospital stay will no longer carry any water. I might try telling students that I have lost not only my eyebrows, but my eyelashes. I’m sure that the girls will view that as the ultimate tragedy. They guys will say “Oh, cool! I lost part of my ear once.”

Time to see how I did with my predictions about my first bunch of assignments from students.

• everyone won’t be done (that’s too easy)
  Only 1 student out of 12 did not turn in assignments
• some will want more time (a subset of  “won’t be done”)
  No one requested more time
• some will decide to drop the course because they had no idea how much work would be involved (I had help with that one)
  One student did decide to drop the course. I though she was waivering, but lack of any assignments is probably not a good sign.
• some will say “This was pretty hard, but I got through it”
  Not in so many words, but I’m sure that they are thinking it.
  
• some will say “Mister E, thank you for all your help this week. I’ll try to do better next week.” (suck ups)
  Still waiting
  
• some will say “Mister E looks like Antonio Banderas” (subset of suck ups)
  Still waiting
  
• some will say “The dog (cat, fish, lizard) ate my homework”
  I suppose if you are going to drop the course, excuses aren’t really necessary.
  
• some will say something about having to attend to their (or my) grandmother
  I will check with granny later today. So far she hasn’t called.

Well, I feel a little sheepish. It is said that students will live up to (or down to) your expectations for them. Before starting the class, I thought that my first group of students might struggle more, when in fact, they did an admirable job.

The course has just begun and we’re just beginning to get to know each other, but I will have high expectations for this group for the coming week.

Actually,  it’s Sunday morning, the day of grading the first group of assignments, but I couldn’t come up with a snappy title for that.  I haven’t looked at my class yet, so the feeling is much the same from my perspective.

So I want to make some predictions about what I will find when I open my course. You old-timers, probably already know.

• everyone won’t be done (that’s too easy)
• some will want more time (a subset of  “won’t be done”)
• some will decide to drop the course because they had no idea how much work would be involved (I had help with that one)
• some will say “This was pretty hard, but I got through it”
• some will say “Mister E, thank you for all your help this week. I’ll try to do better next week.” (suck ups)
• some will say “Mister E looks like Antonio Banderas” (subset of suck ups)
• some will say “The dog (cat, fish, lizard) ate my homework”
• some will say something about having to attend to their (or my) grandmother

Well, I’m so curious to find out, that I’ll stop here.

After a steady parade of doctors and nurses at all hours of the day and night, I’m a little disoriented. Progress is like a glacier, but progress nevertheless. One positive thing I can say: The food ain’t bad. I’m not trying to bury it like my cats this week.

Approaching their first assignment deadline on Saturday, which includes creating a blog, students are sending me messages saying that they are lost and overwhelmed. I anticipate losing another student next week, quite possibly because she hasn’t paid her tuition, in addition to being lost and overwhelmed.

Other students are bubbling over with excitement and can’t wait to do more blogging. Bah! Humbug! I never cared for it myself. If this were mealtime, I wouldn’t be writing this.

Many students are planting seeds of doubt in my mind. Didn’t I just tell them the due dates? Wasn’ t there a tutorial on how to create a blog? Why does my spell checker think that there’s no such word as “wasn’t”? You must mean “Wash” or possibly “Awns.” Why doesn’t the APA style manual address this? I digress.

On Sunday, I will be grading the assignments that were due on Saturday. One student wanted me to look at her assignment early to see if she was on the right track. I think there was a blog posting about this. I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t be grading papers twice. I’m ashamed to say I let down and told her that she should probably proofread her assignment.

The nurse just came in to give me drugs. I gotta go. Next to meals, this is the best part of the day.