Seep

The contents of my brain (not that there are many) are liable to seep out at any second. My head hurts. I can no longer focus. I just want to stare off into space.

Over the past hour or two, I have been reading papers. I began by reading weekly essay question responses by my freshman. Overall, their responses were entertaining. The topic of the week was drugs. Some students told me about movies they have seen where drugs were depicted. Others described their own experiences. One student, in particular, decided to use a variety of explicatives throughout the content of his response. I am not sure if he was actually high himself when he decided to turn in such a response or if he was testing me to see if I actually read the essays. Perhaps he knows me well enough to know that I really do not mind such content - afterall, I think that the occasional swear word adds a little something to life.

After grading the weekly essay questions, I moved to the students' manuscripts. The manuscript is the largest assignment in my Pscyh 100 course. It is a big deal. I assign it on the first day, give them class time and review my expectations periodically throughout the quarter until it is due. So far, I have only read about 10 (out of 42) papers. Some were pretty good. Some were horrible. I find myself wondering why there is such a wide variety in quality. Did I not explain the assignment well enough (even though I gave them specific grading criteria and a sample)? Did some of them put a lot of effort into their papers where as others decided to put it off until the night before it was due? Should I pull those students whom failed the assignment aside and give them a chance to redo it? Do I care?

In addition to having somewhere around 32 more manuscripts to review, I also have my juniors' midterms to look at and I need to come up with some lectures for the week. Geesh. I never knew (before I started teaching, that is) that being the instructor was so much work....However, as I sit here now, I find myself reverting to my old college ways-- I think I'll put things off (most specifically grading) for just a few more minutes....

I need my head to stop hurting...