I'M ALIVE! And coming back from research paper hell...
Sorry for the long delay between posts, but I had 86 9th grade research papers to grade, and they were *UGLY*. More F's than I've ever had, combined, the last three years of teaching. Nightmarish. Usually it takes me about 20 minutes per paper to grade; this time it took over an hour per paper. Hence the serious delay in posting.
That combined with the hectic end of my swim season made for no spare time. The research papers are done, the swim season is over, and now all I've got left is to grade regular assignments (which have been piling up during this research paper onslaught) and to coach lacrosse. Whew.
In the meantime, life continues as usual. We've been overrun by rodents in our house as spring approacheth. At first it was just a token rustling/chewing sound from inside the walls, something we've dealt with off and on the whole time we've lived in this particular house. But things got steadily worse. More noise, little nibbles taken out of items around the house, mouse poopies in corners and on various surfaces, stuff like that. So we escalated our efforts, placing those sticky-traps in various locations around the house (I can't load real traps--inevitably I snap my fingers in them--and they are unpleasant to remove when the occupant has assumed room temperature).
Well, I heard thunking from under the sink, and opened the cabinet door to find A RAT with his butt stuck to the trap. He was unhappy about his apparent fate, and I was unwilling to extricate an unfriendly occupant who still had fight left in him, so I left him thumping around under the sink for the night. The next morning, rat and trap were gone. I suspect he fell through the hole around the pipes in his attempts to free himself, and is probably going funky under the house. Eew.
A day later, more thumping under the sink revealed several mice (when they fell out as the door was opened). So we escalated again. We loaded the cabinets with DeCon. The little buggers have eaten through two full boxes of poison and are working on a third. I haven't heard much more in the way of noise in the house, so I assume we've sufficiently culled the herd.
The dog is no help. We have to wire the cabinets shut to keep him from getting into the DeCon. And he's no help at all with the rodents. They've literally walked right past the dog on the way to his food bowl, and he just waves them through. Twit.
Anyway, nothing much has happened in my reality the past few weeks, since I've just been grading. But Spring Break starts next Friday, so maybe life will get more exciting...
4 comments:
You're alive!! Mom and Dad mentioned an infestation at the house. Dad also mentioned that Ross mentioned something about moving, but it is Dad so I take it with the proverbial grain o' salt. If you are thinking about moving, what area would you be in? Hernando? Olive Branch? Back into a less ghetto part of Memphis? Buy or rent? I also seem to recall that Ross was up for some promotion/raise...did that ever come thru? Keep me updated and enjoy the reduced workload, rodents notwithstanding.
UGH!! I remember exam hell!!! (I would have to grade 6 sections of of mid-terms and quarterly math exams; about 120 in all. I'd give them partial credit for showing their work so you are familiar with what that entails... I'll keep you in my prayers for a speedy recovery.)
Your post reminded me of my childhood. We lived in a tiny house with at least two empty lots nearby. The landowners didn't keep them up so there was usually lots of trash and weeds/tumbleweeds. Mice were not uncommon. One night I woke up TOTALLY FREAKED OUT... a mouse was crawling across my blanket! I don't think waking up to Freddy Kreuger would have made me scream as much as I did!
My daughter has spring break in a couple of weeks as well. I miss getting those extended breaks. (People talk about teachers and time off. It's a trade-off; working 50-60 hour weeks and then some deserved rest.) I'll be thinking of you as I get up and trudge through rush hour but you deserve it!!
As far as writing skills go, I get really perturbed as well. My hubby is finishing up his BS online and has had the pleasure of having to write a "paper" with idiots. I thought he would have a stroke in this last class, the history of modern technology or something like that. The topic his group agreed on was "technology in the fight against disease in third world countries". After putting together an outline and divvying up the parts, it came time for every contributor to turn in their work. Basically one guy "borrowed" an encyclopedia entry. The focus was on a particular African country, it's geography, a brief history, type of currency, and so forth. The guy had no idea as to why the group couldn't use it. Then, one girl was assigned to take the pieces and put them together in ALA or whatever style they were using. She posts the evening that the paper is due that she couldn't figure out what to do and that the paper was going to be late. Steve, the aforementioned spouse, was so very pissed! (Unlike his first try at college, he has a 3.9'ish grade and has tried his best to maintain.)
I think the problem with teaching kids to write today is that it is w-o-r-k... if it's not something that the computer or their parents can do for them, they'd rather not do it at all. I had to try all sorts of tricks and methods to get the kids excited about writing but it always boiled down to the "haves" and "have nots". (That was the teacher's lounge terminology; I'm sure you know what I mean.) Some kids "have" that drive and excitement when it comes to learning and always doing their best. They are not always the smartest but they end up getting good grades because they are willing to put forth the effort. The "have nots" have no clue that they will be the ones slinging hash for a living. I hope there are more "haves" otherwise we're going to be in a real hell-hole in a couple of decades.
Thanks for your dedication in the trenches,
Mon :-)
I forgot one thing... I had a method/rubric for research papers so that it wasn't so much work at the end. Let me know if this is something you'd be interested in for future reference.
Hugs,
Mon :-)
I've got a pretty thorough rubric. These papers were just about "how to write a research paper", so the girls were allowed to choose their own topics. We went a step at a time, choosing topics, researching, making rough outlines and working bibliographies, writing thesis statements, creating the introduction and conclusion, writing the full rough draft with citations, then producing the final draft with full MLA citations, both internal and external. I gave them a two-page checklist on all the things to make sure they had done, from setting the margins correctly to double-checking their sources on the works cited page. It didn't help. They aren't willing to take the time to do it right, assuming that if they do it wrong, someone will come along and make the corrections for them. Instead, I just marked the mistakes and gave them the option of rewriting the papers for a new grade (not a replacement for the previous grade--this is a whole new assignment). Many of them seem to have chosen to not rewrite the papers, because they are too lazy to figure out how to make the corrections. Sad. I am certainly worried that kids like this will be in charge of things when I'm old. Eek.
Post a Comment