Slumber party with plants in May!

Michaela, didn't you see my charming article yesterday?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/366/
Or are your finals keeping you so busy... Just when we're breathing sighs of relief around here, DH's professor's start assigning extra credit papers! xx, C

This message was edited Dec 6, 2007 3:40 PM

Oh Lord! Extra credit papers! What a villian . . . . I would never do that to students. I bet your husband is now stressing out about getting A++++ on all of those papers as well . . . . you have my sympathy . . . .

Still marking - must develop the final exams tomorrow.

Last student just handed in his in-class assignment; that means I get to go home. It will be tomorrow at the earliest before I can read your article, Carrie. Sorry.

I REALLY want to give it my full attention - and I am beat.

carrielamont, you are inspiring me. Thanks, Patti

Carrie:

I loved your article. And I laughed so much. You have a very humorous style.

Thanks, Candyce. That's been my survival tool all my life. Yes, okay, be a solid B+/A- student, but do it with such a good sense of humor that the people with their A+++++++s and their PhDs and their genius IQs look down at me and say "gee, it must be fun down there. She certainly seems to think something is entertaining!

Michaela, it's meant to be something you read with your morning coffee, not your marking pen! It doesn't need your full attention. Honest, it doesn't.

Yes, the one prof that up until the first test he said "wow, this guy is a grrrrreat teacher, I want to take all of his courses" and then after the first test said "man, that is SO unfair! Remind me NEVER to take another course with this idiot" assigned an optional extra credit research paper and so did another prof whose classes he hated. It's funny, after the first few lectures he LOVED the one person and DESPISED the other, for their lecturing techniques or their control - or lack of it - of the classroom or their mastery of their topic or whatever. Yet those two are the ones giving extra-credit. I think - I never got all the way up to teaching college, and most of my grades didn't really count, but I think that both profs ended up with a grade curve that did not look right. In the one class, too many people would have failed and she would had to do some fancy scaling to even come up with a reasonable grade distribution that she HAD to assign a paper to give the kids - actually at UMassBoston they're mostly people - a chance to pass.

In the other - a great guy, who DH was really smitten with at first, makes the tests in three parts. The first part is take-home short answer. Well for Ray, or course, if short is good then medium is better and long is best. He spent 35 - 40 hours on the part that he had a week to do at home. (Open world, except he couldn't communicate to anyone about it.) (Meanwhile had to work, do his other three classes and be a husband and father.) The second (which he had no time to study for) is multiple choice in-class, but the third part is small group. ? In other words, the class is divided into groups of four who then by whatever means come to a consensus to answer questions. This is the way governments work, but DH feels his grade shouldn't suffer because of it. I mean, that's the way the US government manages to convince itself that global climate change wasn't happening - hire experts who don't look at the whole picture. I think one of his (DH's) small groups had just about concluded that water didn't exist or something.

I think there SHOULD be a college - or better yet, HIGH SCHOOL - class on consensus building, what kind of info you need to make a decision, how to get people to agree with an unpleasant idea, yadda yadda.

Oh well, I haven't posted in a while, but i can't make up for it in one morning, with one post! xxx, Carrie

I think you and I have cloned husbands! David takes exactly the same stance - more is better - and slaves over papers that simply don't warrant that amount of effort.

Is yours missing between 10:30 pm and 5 am? Mine is, x, C

Well, I leave the house at 7 am and usually I return home about 6:30 pm or later. (I think that is a long enough day, don't you?).

Meanwhile, DH has TWO courses - one of which he attends Mon-Wed-Fri, the other meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He also drives DD to college classes and often drives her home. He spends most evenings from 8 pm until almost 2 am working on his class work. (and most of his free time during the day as well!)

Well, it's true! They're all kids at a normal college. UMass Boston is a commuter school - most of the students are older, than 18 - 22. To us, at 46 + 56, even 25 year olds are kids! But in their own minds they are people, I guess. xx, C

If you think that's funny - I think ALL my students are kids! Even the ones that are older than me!

I also have a lot less trouble with students that some of the faculty - simply because I have been a parent :-)

I just make my students watch the video of my cat shaking hands if they give me trouble. Once is enough - never have to repeat the torture twice in the same semester.

Your cat shakes hands? With people? How old are your students, Ms. Cat? I've never been able to train cat to do more than come when it heard its food bowl gotten out!
x, C

Carrie - I teach Community College so the students are from 18 to 80. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91aHzPf1sEo Here is Wallingford shaking hands with me.

I'm old enough so that everyone is a kid to me!

Cat, they see that as torture? As long as Wallingford sees you have the treat in your other hand, he'll do it, right? I'd write my stuff on time for YOU any way. XXXXX, C

He only does it if he can't figure a way to just steal the treat.

OK, I would do it if I needed to. But why would I be in trouble in one of your courses, Cat? I do my homework on time, and I write good well, too. xx, C

I think you would be a riot to have in a class.

Imagine a class with Dave47, Victor, Al, Carrie, Pirl, Cat, Candyce, - why . . . everybody from NE forum! W
It would be a blast!

Now the topic - well, I teach sociology, so for Al and Victor's sake I guess it should be deviance. :-)

Wait, wait, can't I teach some Music Theory (whether they like it or not, she said, gritting her teeth)? xx, C

All for the slumbering and truth or dare - I think that was mentioned somewhere, but most likely not a trip east in the near future.

Yank - that video your cat had of you giving him treats was funny.

Did you like the part where he bit me?

Absolutely - music theory! Can you imagine conducting a class with this crew (pun intended!)

Almost... x, C

That's why the conducting would be Carrie's purview.

It would be my Purgatory, I think, somehow... x, C

Not so, Carrie!

Just broke the news to DH . . . He wanted to know where he was going to sleep! Hahahahah.

I think this idea is terrific!

THAT'S funny, Michaela!
You DO have a dog house, right?

Oh, sorry. I take that back. What I said was kinda mean. But, he could pitch a tent at the garden site, not? I mean, someone has to stand guard overnight.

Well, we actually have a camper in the back yard, so if he is desperate, he can go hangout there!

Candyce, I didn't think it was mean, I thought it was very funny! (of couse, I won't tell DH you said that heeheehee)

Ok, Michaela. I'll rely on you to keep my secret.
LOL!!

You realize, Michaela, that the chance of our being able to come is unbelievably slim. x, c

Carrie:
I DO hope that you can come. I would miss not seeing you.

Me too... it's just too far in advance and too many independent variables. xxx, C

Well then, Carrie. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you

Thank you Emily just kidding! Thank you, Candyce. xxx, Carrie

I want EVERYBODY to come!

That's good, because everybody (well, me) wants to come!

Good, 'cause I want you to come too!