spring 2008 = finished

I just submitted my last grades for Spring 2008. The term is finished. Well, almost. Heather and I gave out two incompletes for our Women Studies course. But otherwise, I am finished.

Some quick end of the term reflections:

Teaching 4 classes is do-able. Teaching 5 classes is insane. I won’t be attempting to do that again.

I am sad that I won’t be teaching technical writing again (at least not for a few years). The course is fun to teach, and I see so much I can improve on: 1) grading (I graded too softly and am just now getting a hand on how to assess more accurately); 2) scaffolding (breaking up the larger assignments so that they are more clear and more step-by-step based; 3) looking at more sample documents so that students can get a clearer idea of what works and doesn’t work; and 4) doing more peer review of classmates’ documents.

I am happy I get to teach business writing over the summer. The major challenge here will be cramming 10 weeks of material and writing into a 4 week course. I have never taught a whole course in 4 weeks. The closest I could get to saying that is the 4-week units I taught as a middle school reading teacher. But this is a world of a difference. I’m excited for the challenge, though.

So, what’s next? Catching up on some projects that have been neglected over the last 10 months, preparing my business writing class, cleaning my office and email inboxes, packing up so that I can move to State College in about seven weeks, and catching up with some old friends and professors over coffee, dinner, or drinks.