2005-10-30
Constructive Criticism, or, Drunk on Diet P which leads to long bathroom breaks for which I don't get paid
Holy autocrap! I'm seriously becoming roboto-ized. I've graded, online, for about 30 hours, since Wednesday, which doesn't seem like that much, really, but let me tell you what I'm doing.
In a minute.
Ok, I'm officially too confused to grade any more exams today. How comforting, those of us who have been in university, to know that sometimes our exams are graded by people who are so tired they keep falling asleep during your exam and end up muttering "ah, yeah, very good, fuck it, 4 points", as they haphazardly copy and paste a comment full of spelling mistakes into the comments box on your submission.
Here's something that made me chuckle a couple of minutes ago:
"Moses' second trip to Mount Sinai, to replace the set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments which he had broken after his first trip [haha, he broke them when he tripped, get it?!], when he found Israelites worshipping a golden calf instead of God, who lead them out of Egypt . The nation fasted during his second trip, from sunrise to sunset [like, a really LOOOng acid trip, man. whoahhahahaha... get it?]"
then I chuckled about me chuckling about that. then I was stricken with pangs of self-loathing. then I forgot all about all of that.
So, anyhow, what I'm doing is grading 115+/- exams for this online course I'm TA-ing (that's "Teaching Assistant", not "Tits and Ass"). Each exam has 10 short answer questions, making, oh, about 1150 short answer questions for me to grade and comment on in about 5 days, due to the mini-holiday I took for the other 5 days of the 10 I had to do this in initially (see previous entry for details on that).
I'm not trying to complain, but it's taking forever. I have until midnight tomorrow to finish these exams (2 1/2 questions left, times 115 = all day and all night tomorrow), and then I have to grade a "reflection" assignment, wherein my 115 darlings (4 of whom plagiarized on this exam, the bastards I'll wring their wet little necks!) "think" about their reading assignment for this past week.
I feel like I'm sounding cynical and hateful. I'm really not. Still, it's probably a good thing I put the pen (read, mouse) down for today.
These 115 reflections are due by noon on Monday. Hooray! Usually they take me about 5 or 6 or 9 hours to do, but I'm going for 1/2 an hour this time.
And then, after that, I have 65 on paper midterms to grade for the other class I'm tits n' ass for. And then... and then... and then...
I really wish I could be more organized. But wishes are for sissies, bitches!
You're not bitches, I just like how that -- what's the word I want for sounds like but doesn't rhyme... alliteration? -- how that alliterates with sissies and wishes.
I had something else exciting to say about grading, but I can't remember. So, in loo of that, Happy Hallowscreeeeaaammm!!
***ok, I remembered. I'm actually kind of excited to grade the 65 paper exams, because that means I can change seats sometimes. Like, for example, sit in the kitchen, where it's warm, or outside, where it's cold, or on my bed, where it's awkward and makes my back sore -- instead of being stuck stuck stuck to my computer chair that I've never really liked but I feel bad for it so don't tell.
Nobody really likes it. Because, it's too short. ssshh.
pansycline at 1:44 a.m.