Whenever I have large stacks of grading, I find that I can power through for a while but the closer I get to being done, the harder it is to force myself to get the last few papers done. This is true even if I take a big break - for example, I finished grading all but five papers yesterday morning and then I started working on something else, figuring I would start fresh this morning and just finish them off. I did manage to grade a couple this morning but it's now six hours later and I just can't seem to find the mental wherewithal to do the others. I have, however, vacuumed my living room, worked a bit on another project, and done some prepping for next week's classes (and now I'm writing this...). For some reason, I just can't seem to get my brain to focus so I can grade those last few papers, even though I know that it's not going to take all that long and if I can just do it, I will feel incredibly happy to be done with the whole stack. Is it just me, or does this happen to other people?
I came across an interesting discussion about a 19-year-old intern who was fired from The Gazette in Colorado Springs for plagiarism. There appears to be some controversy over the fact that the editor publicly named the girl in a letter to readers (explaining and apologizing for the plagiarism), with some people saying that doing so was unduly harsh because this incident will now follow her for the rest of her career. I was intrigued by this discussion for two reasons - one, it seems pretty clear to me that this was not a case of ignorance (as I have often encountered with my own students who have no idea how to paraphrase or cite correctly) and two, putting aside the offense itself, I have often struggled with how to handle situations where there are long-term repercussions for a student, repercussions that lead the overall costs to be far higher than might seem warranted for the specific situation. As an example of the latter issue, I have occasionally taught seniors who need to p
I have that problem at the beginning or during the middle, but not at the end. If the papers/exams are poorer on average than expected, I get depressed and full of self-doubt about my teaching effectiveness, and look for ways to avoid grading and distract myself - like vacuuming, prepping a different class, etc. But when as I get closer to the end, psychological momentum builds and helps me get through the rest.
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