A lot of reflections over the past three days. Most of what I went through was the sort of junk that comes up on occasion when you bother to think about how you are feeling. Basically, I was feeling a spot of glee from the Obama election and a whole lot of ‘is this my life?’ from dealing with greedy + needy children. At one point I quipped that they were trying to kill me and, mathematically, I should be dead already.
In fact I am quite alive and feeling moderately healthy yet overwhelmed by the landslide of grading I have subjected myself to. I think I am really going to pare back the writing next semester in order to create an experience where students are scaffolding a few major projects. For 091 I project 3-4 projects done in stages that comprise a majority of the grade. Each project should have a solo and a group element that focuses on a specific topic or event. They can even be monthly endeavors. The first can be January, followed by February, and finally March. This tones down the April-May experience significantly, with students working on writinglab exercises and doing who knows what else. Or maybe I can shift that slightly, with the January project leading to a feb premiere and onward in that fashion, which still leaves April open for solo conferences and things all about who needs to be pushed further. How would it work from a points standpoint?
250 per scaffolded assignment (x) 3 assignments is 750. 250 for Writing lab. Or I could make it 200 per scaffolded assignment, 300 for Lab and 100 points just ‘floating points’ to be based on any number of in class assignments and games. I think the 200 works best, because it makes the monster of MWL work the workload.
For 101 it will be 3 assignments for 300 and 100 floating points. Hmm… sounds simple enough. How can I apply this formula to Sociology? Maybe I’ll work on that tomorrow.