Waiting for Studii

Back in the day, we used to make the plural of "Student" be "Studii." I think it had something to do with how we felt that "Biesecker-Mast" should be pluralized as "Biesecker-Masti." Both conversations were spawned (pun intended) from our concern over the plural of "penis."

None of which has anything to do with this teaching journal post.

I just finished grading 2/3 of my (remaining) class's verbal/visual portrait. While the visual portraits tend to be pretty good (at least they are talking about the person) the verbal portraits are all over the place. Some are like news articles, some like a diary. Some quote too extensively, some are all paraphrase. What did I DO?!

Because I'm pretty sure their abysmal performance is my fault. And it all boils down to how they see themselves (positioning) as part of this project.

When I said I wanted a "portrait," I initially talked about a verbal portrait putting into words those things you would capture on film. I suppose I should have been less metaphorical. I should have said, "This means a good argument in this genre includes X, Y, Z."

But how many times did I tell them that I need to "See" the person? That I need to intimately "know" the informant? To "show don't tell"? Did I only imagine that I got those things across? Did I ever look into their eyes to see if it was sinking in?

I can't remember.

And now I'm waiting for the last stragglers to email me their critical bibliographies. Some were holding out for me to push them back yet another few days, but I insisted this was it. And yet, this is a genre I know how to speak to; despite being a horrible bibliography writer myself, I know how to talk about this kind of audience, purpose and style. I'm comfortable with the language, with the expectations. I'd work with them forever on this if I could.

But, alas, I cannot. Time gusts swiftly past something about inspiration, imagination, the autumn wind and dying leaves as metaphor goes here I must not fail this class....

I will spend time tomorrow working on "issue identfication" with them. Although that seems more fit for conferences.

I love conferences. I don't know what people are complaining about. I feel they learn far more in small groups with me as facilitator than they do any other time. So much gets accomplished! And yet I was the only one in the conference room this morning. My kiddos sent me meaningful looks: "We could be in bed like these other classes."

They'll appreciate it later. I've built in lots of "Peer editing from your bed" in the last two weeks. They'll love it.

Twenty-four minutes to go.