Howzit, Tree?

I'm actually sitting here thinking I should have brought grading home because I'm alert and a little bored and could totally grade right now. This is an illness.

I have been neglecting the blog lately, mainly because I don't want to complain or say it was another migraine day. Last week I had tingling and dullness all down my right side and got to have a wonderful conversation with a nurse in my neurologist's office where she asked me questions to see if I was having a stroke and I answered no to each. So, no stroke (yay!), but I still teared up afterward and my office mate had to talk me down from a full-on cry 20 minutes before my class started. My doc was off-island, so the on-call doc talked to me. She thought I was having a migraine but without head pain. My doc now thinks side effect, but he doesn't seem positive. Being a medical mystery is no fun. The dullness is gone, but I still get an occasional tingle

I love Office Mate. I wasn't sure we'd get along when I we moved in together, mainly because several people warned me that I might not get along with her. But they were all wrong. I will be getting a new office mate this summer; I don't know who it will be yet.

The colleague that annoys the hell out of me* is causing light drama, and I can't tell if ze's being weird or if ze is right. I'm not involved in this project, but apparently the people involved also can't tell if ze's onto something or if ze's overreacting. But that's okay. There are more steps and more people before decisions can be made. Is that vague enough?

The work stuff that's going on is all stuff I can't blog about while it's going on, so that leaves the never-ending piles of grading on the work front. Because I've been diss-oriented and migrained, I've been a little slack with keeping up with students. So I'm noticing gaps in grades now that the end is nigh.

I'm trying a new everyone-gets-one-late-pass policy, no questions asked. After that, I don't have to accept anything late. Students who don't use the late get points added back into their final grade. Most students used it and that was it. They liked the having the safety net, and I like not having to make decisions about accepting late work or granting extensions. Success!

But then there are those students who just can't get it together. It's just a couple in each class, but there are always a couple in each class and no matter what your policy, they will ask for an exemption. Some have legitimate learning disability or language-barrier problems that requires extra time. Fine; extensions granted. At least for LD students that's required of me anyway and I expect 1-2 a semester. Some have just slipped stuff in without reminding me that they used their late pass; sneaky. Others just keep breaking promises.

I decided to let the laties turn in whatever they want. But after the one late, their participation grade is shot. I like keeping the late penalty separate from the quality of the work grade. Being late is more about not being prepared for class than it is about not getting a concept or not being able to do the work. So they get marked down on the part of the grade that reflects their professionalism, preparedness, and participation. It's only 10% though, but I have no problem giving zeros to students who have good attendance but are never prepared and always turn things in late.



*We're a very nice department though: it's all drama-light, we get along very well at meetings, and everyone is collegial (supportive as well as polite). So while ze annoys me, we get along okay. I think ze would annoy me less if we spent more time together so I could get used to hir quirks. Besides, I know I annoy people too with my awesome know-it-allness. You have to grant people their quirks. I do have non-quirk issues with ze too, though, so it's not all rosey.