Comments on: Thanksgiving’s passed by way of Thanksgivings past

By: luckyjane

luckyjane — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:16:27 +0000

The grading turned out not to be so awful, Sisyphus. I have a rubric! As for the drafts, they were just garden-variety undergraduate drafty. I.e., horrific. But the ordeal encroached only minimally on my holiday, since I had “saved” it all for Sunday, anyway. Over the summer I had actually resolved to split up the grading into daily installments, but I hated how the grading hung over me; rationing it out saved no time or anxiety at all. Like all teaching tasks, grading absorbs all the time I allow it. For me, it’s been better to squeeze it deliberately into the last minute.

Thanks for the thoughts and wishes. The goodies are good indeed. There will probably be pies of all sorts: the winter is young, and when no one’s looking I like to channel Cartman.

Neophyte: your lovely comment makes me verklempt. So thank you.

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:12:50 +0000

Whuff —- some heavy stories there. I’m glad your dad is well now (and all the other things-to-be-thankful-for are thankable) and hope you enjoy the spicy tea and other fall consumables (though, I note there is no _pie_ in that list … that should be rectified).

Most of my friends and I agonize over whether to punish the students (have the paper due immediately after thanksgiving break) or punish ourselves (let the students go home with lifted hearts and a sense of relief while we grade the papers over the whole thanksgiving break) — you seem to have discovered a way to get the worst of both worlds.

By: neophyte

neophyte — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:20:00 +0000

I really just adore this blog.

I love that your posts are proper pieces of writing – they have something to express, and they are properly finished expressions. Such a refreshment after the psyche-splatter of most blogs.

So thank you.