Random Tid Bits

1. Have you ever taken one of those colored personality tests? I'm always pretty even across the board. One color isn't a lot stronger than another. Either I'm confused, or I'm a well rounded person. 


2. I have a first year student that wanted to know how I grade. I'm assuming she wondered why she got a B, and not her usual A that she got in her high school art class. I said, "I grade on the points that I have on the handout, which are also listed on the grade slip. I think about the good and bad examples I showed in class, and think about if you followed some of what I discussed in those pieces. What I've covered in class is pretty important; have you been listening? Finally I grade on what the body of student's work looks like. Then I ask another teacher to see if they agree on what order I have in the line up of grading. There's a lot more to it, than it may seem. Partly it's subjective, but mostly it's about having trained eyes."
   
   She looked at me blankly. I think she wanted her work graded much like a math worksheet would be graded. #3 is wrong, and #4 is right.
   
   Artwork isn't really graded like that. I do write on their grade slip things they can approve upon, and they have a week to get it back to me.


3. I've felt a bit like I've been dragging all week. Isaak got the stomach flu late Saturday night. He was sick all Sunday. I got it Monday at the tail end of work. I felt awful! Travis got it a little after me. I had to tease him because he kept telling Isaak he needed to eat bread when he wasn't feeling well. My mom and I said, "Clear liquids first". When Travis was sick I kept saying, "Eat some bread! How about some pizza?" Mica got it on Tuesday night, but it never amounted to anything. He just slept and slept.


4. I finally went in to get my eyes tested. If you remember I didn't do the best on my driver's test for the vision part. I didn't want to get my eyes tested because I didn't know if it was polyps pushing on my eyes, allergies, or actually my eyes. I finally made it into an eye doctor. My one astigmatism, and other eye that doesn't have one are basically playing tug of war. I actually see pretty well. So I'm getting glasses as soon as they come in.


5. Do you remember the kid that got attacked by a gator on Disney's turf? It happened awhile back. The little boy that died is from here. The parents haven't talked in public until now. What they have done to honor his name is truly wonderful! 

The End of the School Year is Among Us

I've been wanting to blog more, but it's close to finals time. Lets just say that I've been busy grading, grading and more grading. My seniors have senioritis. They don't want to do anything I want them to do. They want to be out of school in the worst way. What they don't realize is that 5 years from now many of them will wish to be back in school; minus the student loans. Truly this senior class is the best students I've had. A few know they are good. It's gone to their heads. The rest, I'm kind of sad to see them leave.

Mica's Kindergarten teacher mentioned that she lost the kids' attention as soon as spring break happened. In some regards I lost the drive in my students as well.

I'm so happy that this semester I don't have to hand grade tests! I have a program that puts the test over the network, mixes up the order of the questions and gives me the results in the matter of seconds! Second semester my first year students have laptops; first semester they did not.

My Grading Consists of: 

A stack of stationery sets to grade. All the companies I picked out. Many I discovered through blogging. My goal was to pick companies the students have never heard of. Then they'd have to look them up. The students redesigned their logos in two ways. Then made stationery sets for them.

A stack of editorial illustrations to grade. I found about 10 really interesting, out there articles. Then the students did illustrations for them. My favorites are: The First Arab Sumo Wrestler and Squirrels Gone Wild.

A stack of Resume Packages for my seniors.