The winter quarter is almost done. I have final grades to do this weekend and then I will officially be on spring break. Very exciting. Several of my students will not be so excited, as they have failed the course and will need to repeat it. Luckily, it isn’t that I am an awful, hard grader, but they didn’t pass the department’s portfolio assessment.

I think there is a relationship between this and my attitude, though I think it is not what some may suspect. By my judgment, my attitude adjustment came after realizing how little some of the students cared about their education. Perhaps some people might want to think that my “caring less” directly affected those who failed. But, basically I can’t write the essays for them, I can’t think for them, and I can’t make them listen and take my insightful advice on their essays. Heck in one case I couldn’t force a student to show up for her one-on-one conference to discuss her essays. Students have a lot more control over their education than they think they do.

This quarter definitely left me burnt out on teaching. I wonder if next quarter will be any better…

I took a moment from another session of formative commentation on student essays (I read, read, read--mark, mark, mark-- comment, comment, comment-- and pray the students take at least as much time to look it all over as I have). What did I do in this stolen moment, you may ask. I added up the amount of time I’m paid to work on the class I teach and compared it to the actual amount of time I work on the class.  The calculation is not promising. Even though I have taken great effort to spend less time this quarter than in quarters past, I’m still alarmingly over the amount of time I’m compensated for.

Can I find more ways to save time next quarter, the last quarter of my teaching contract? I’ve gleaned one way from my officemate who is a full-time lecturer, namely shorter essay lengths. It seems since the time she was in my position as a TA to now the length requirements of the essays has grown (seemingly arbitrarily) and we aren’t sure why. I believe I shall think this over for next quarter.

A few inches of sticky snow fell last week, and the weather predictors say more this week. We had been hoping for a smooth transition into spring with its cool, rainy days to start and the flowering blooms to end before warming into summer. My scarves and gloves are still at the ready, for another week at least.

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As usual, the quarter is nearing its end and I’m overwhelmed with work to do. This time I’m not killing myself to get it done, but trying to prioritize better and see what I can let slide. Another change in having a new baby I knew about but couldn’t quite predict was the way priorities would fall out once I shook them about.