I can’t remember the last time I have felt this swamped with grading/commenting on student work. I’m teaching an overload this term, and while it is a modest overload (one class that I’ve taught many times before and which I kind of feel like I need to teach in order to further a research project), it has really slowed me down the last couple of weeks.
This week is the final wave for everything in my classes. The last day of classes are this coming Monday, and as a result, I’ve got (between my three classes) five sets of projects/essays to comment on. Then, after I finish that reading/commenting, there’s another big wave. Final grades need to be calculated in two of my classes by Monday of next week (students in those classes use finals week to revise things if they want to). And then in my graduate class, another wave will begin as they hand in their seminar projects.
And I’ve been distracted by getting writing.emich.edu to work.
And the weather is really starting to turn nice.
And then the spring term starts in two and a half weeks, though I’m kind of looking forward to that. Since most “school business” more or less shuts down during the spring and summer terms (May to August, basically), I will be mostly just teaching, and the course I’ll be teaching will be online. I’ll certainly have to meet with some MA students for advising and such, but the service burden drops off quite a bit after the regular term.
Anyway, the end is near, and I think.