Lightening the load

I know you're all dying of curiosity, so here's what I've decided: I am not going to rush to get first versions of papers back to the 101 students. I'm still on the fence about whether to make revisions optional; at the moment I still think I'll require them but will give the students a time extension so they have at least a week after I return the graded first versions. Not only does doing this ease the pressure on me, it lets the students focus on starting their final projects. The sense of relief is huge--and I no longer feel the ferocious resistance to facing those papers that I've felt since they came in. I don't need to rebel any more, as the repressive regime has been overthrown in a bloodless coup. (All inside my own psyche. I think most of us tend to be much harder on ourselves than the outside world is on us.) Interesting on a psychosomatic level that as soon as I made that decision, the headache that had been plaguing me all day eased up. It's not altogether gone, but has receded to a dull murmur instead of an insistent scream. I'm chipping away at that pile of unmarked homework (still, again), interspersing a paper or two as I go along.

Making this decision also means I don't feel compelled to cancel class, which also feels better. In a way, it's nice to have a stolen day at home to work, but I actually do enjoy being in the classroom, and in 229 as well as the 101s, they have reading due this week that I do want to have time to go over with them. And I have some homework assignments ready to go--which I may or may not actually assign. Many of the 101 students are still far from understanding MLA documentation--not that MLA is the be-all and end-all of document styles, but I feel I only have time to teach one (and one is confusing enough), and since MLA is specific to my discipline.... Anyway, I have an assignment in which I provide them with 5 different kinds of sources and have them use their style guides to create a works cited page. The ones who get it have no problem; the ones who don't may not be served very well by the assignment. I may do better simply having them rework their own pages from their papers, over and over until they get them right. I don't mind if there are some errors, but I'd like them to have at least the basics right, and a lot of them are far, far from that understanding. We'll see.

I also realized I have to take a look at the final paper assignment for 229 and make any necessary adjustments to it; I should give it to the students this week, again, so they can start thinking about it. I'll be very interested to see how they do with the first pages of Ceremony. Many of them were getting the first few paragraphs much better than I expected when we went over them in class last week; I hope that holds up.

I hope for an early collapse tonight and a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed start to the week tomorrow morning....