There's a V.I.P. Pre-Marathon Party being hosted by my favorite station out of Fargo, The Fox. Now, I love that station, but a PARTY before one has to run 3.2, 6.5, 13, or 26.2 miles? What sense is THAT?

Before I even start to worry myself with that event (which occurs in less than 14 days), I have to focus on the tasks at hand: the final assessments of the final projects during these final days of class... ugh. Whew. Luckily, as I've mentioned before, two of my classes were 12-week buggers. So, they are finished; plugged happily into PeopleSoft to hibernate until whenever computers and the internet explode. Or vanish. Whatever. What's left are: a few Shortfolio presentations in today's English 110 3pm class (as well as Course Reflections and any Extra Credit due tonight at midnight), hefty portfolios by my Creative Writing students due Wednesday at 4pm, final projects and the final projects' respective evaluations in my online English 120. At this very moment, I could assess the final projects from the online 120 kids... but I think those are the only items I could assess right now. Probably could get to all of them (since they were group projects) this afternoon, so that may be my goal of the day.

After and in-between these final assessments, I also would like to look ahead to that online 120 summer course and plug in a few new things to try out. I know I have three weeks after this week to prepare for that class, but I am simply not a good procrastinator.

Second batch of assessment complete (10 papers). Checkmark.
Main concern: How can I get students to go past the informative? They so don't want to dive into the realm of making a statement/argument and backing themselves up. Just SAY IT:
-The word "retard" is demeaning, and the slang meaning of the word should be abolished from use.
-"Beauty" means inner beauty only. The word has nothing to do with what we can actually see.
Throw away the "I think that..." It's your paper, of course you think these thoughts on this page. And I have to "forbid" any more papers on the controversial words of "beauty," "love," and "perfect." Read too many so far, and I'm halfway through. Especially love. It's a word that probably can't be defined in 1000 words anyhow, so leave it alone kids. And, the other kicker? I have them read this paper I wrote called The You Paper where I used You constantly throughout the paper. To prove the point of NOT using it. What are they doing? Using "You" all over the dang place. UGH.

On a more positive note, I think I should start listing intriguing/cool/fun sentences that students use in their papers. It'll perhaps make them want to write better (to see if a sentence of theirs gets chosen to be 'talked about' on my blog)? And it'll add a positive side to assessing papers - me digging for intriguing/cool/fun sentences.

I need to revise the 120 paper rubric. Right now, the student only loses 10pts for an unclear argument. That doesn't seem "right"; if they don't have an argument, then it's not an argumentative paper, and it doesn't fit the required assignment.

*I'm shooting for five papers per section of my online 120 (ten a day); today was day one of that.