TORTURE.
Online students need to read my emails. And before handing in their papers, they should double-check the paper’s handout and the Ruby Rubric.
TRUE STORY.

So, I just discovered that students have to log into Scribd.com (with their Facebook account or they need to sign-up for a free Scribd account) to be able to download the handouts I have. Automatically, I feel bad; BUT, why do I place these documents online? So students who weren’t in class can view them… well, why weren’t they in class? Some have reasons, legitimate ones at that, but some don’t. Now, students lose documents. I get that part, but…

*BIG SIGH* Oh, what did we do before the internet? We had to go to the teacher’s office and ask for a handout. Yep. Or just miss out on the points.

I find myself asking how much of my stuff should be online anyhow, particularly with an on-campus class. For one, it makes them too dependent on the online stuff – thinking they can miss class and just go online to grab the goodies. I suppose that by blogging about what we are doing in class, I’m setting myself up for that attitude, but I also like to reflect on what we did and when and I think this whole “what you missed” tagging will aid me in future preparations for classes.

They may be too dependent on email and Facebook and my blog and Scribd.com, but I can do something about all that, too. It’s not something I can only complain about; I can do something about it. Less info out there in never-never-interweb-land and more info given out in class.

In my online classes, I have 44 papers to assess. My on-campus total is 24.
So, that brings my total to 68 which, at about *10 papers a day,
is about a week’s worth of grading at a medium pace.
Yep. And so it begins.

I’m caught up elsewhere, to a certain extent.
Before I weigh-in and have a noon meeting,
I should wrap up my 3pm class (English 110) stuff.

*I think I’ll shoot to assess 5 in each class each day = 15 papers.

p.s. First paper of the day was a WordPerfect document. Ugh.

If you are a student in my online class, you could earn some bonus points
by finding a cool picture on Flickr.com (the Creative Commons area, of course)
and emailing it to me no later than 5pm on Friday, February 18.
Try to find one that I can place funny text on. Thanks.

Sometimes, students choose not to think. I completely believe they are all capable of thinking and learning, so instead of replying to emails with frustration, I’m going to send pictures of Einstein. This one is perfect because it’s like he’s thinking, “Dude, you know better; you can do better.” I think I’d like to use the one of him sticking his tongue out too. Yeah.

I have to play now because once the semester really gets rolling, I won’t have time.
We* all know this. Steal my links if you want.

JIGSAW PLANET:
I made a homework reminder using Jigsaw Planet.
And a reminder puzzle about P2.
And yet another one for a final grade check email.

PREZI (campus email/campus email password):
I made one for a campus presentation, but they have a gallery of already-made ones, like this one about the writing process.
A George Carlin prezi. Yay.
A prezi showing the peer review process in publishing.
This prezi explains how to put together a rough draft; I could put it in my online class right now. So useful!
Same goes for this one on proofreading.

ANIMOTO (campus email/iTunes password):
What is an essay? created by me. Hard to hear pieces of video. Boo…
Intro to Online English 120. Should use it next week when I email them!

XTRANORMAL (FB login):
Use reliable sources movie.
Late work movie.

TOONDOO:
Assign for English 120 argument stuff?

WIKIS and GOOGLE DOCS:
Made a video (already in English 120 Online) about using those two things for group projects.

GLOGSTER (yahoo email or teacher47; iTunes password):
I made a few one; one is in use already as a link in the English 120 Online class.
Here’s my old Creative Writing one and my English 110 one as well.

WORDLE:
Used as a cover sheet for my English 120 Online class syllabus!

TIMEGLIDER (teacher47; very basic password):
This could be useful for the Stretch Project (P2) in English 110; I could require it of their topic. Maybe.

*We = teachers, etc.

So, I’ve been thinking that I’d like to start responding to goofy student email (“goofy” = makes no sense or is a crazy request or is answered in the syllabus or was answered in class, etc.) with random and abstract and silly responses. With the help of Karen and Lennie, I have the following ready to be used next semester, or for the remainder of this semester:
You’re a goober; ask Lennie.
Your calculations are making me dizzy.
Johan has a headache; please call back later.
Don’t mess with Johan. His apostrophes are being very possessive today.
[Johan is a little purple rubbery ball I purchased at Target yesterday in order to chuck at students in class; Lennie named him.]

Fifty percent (50%) of my campus email messages are typically student excuses; I just compiled that statistic now when I checked my campus email. So, I started a folder titled “Excuses.” Maybe I’ll make ‘em all into a book someday?

“Unfortunately, I have to stick to my syllabus’ rules.” = This is what I place in many, many student email responses. In fact, I need to enforce another one of my rules MORE: “Emails to the instructor must be error-free.” I guess I could not respond to poorly-written email messages, and that would solve having to say “Yes” or “No” to their requests.

Oddly, when I get those emailed excuses, I do want to give them extra time or whatever, but if I do it for one person, I have to do it for all of them no matter if the excuse is valid or not. And that thought ALONE causes so much stress. It’s easier on me (and fair to all in each class) to JUST SAY NO.

Note to self: In the English 120 Online letter that I send out at the beginning of the semester, remind them that they can click on their grade to see comments from me. They should be taught this in the Bits & Bytes Intro session, but I don’t think they are. Then they send me questions via email that were already answered in those comment boxes & I have to login to find out what I wrote.

Also, I realized this morning that the reason I may have gotten the “she doesn’t answer my emails” comments in my online student evals was because I don’t respond to emails filled with errors. I thought I placed that in ALL of my syllabi, but maybe not? Seriously, not only do I have no idea who some students are (based solely on their goofy email addresses) but I also get uncapitalized, misspelled emails. Since I teach them English, shouldn’t that be of concern when they email me? They should remember who their audience is; this is also the reason I have no problem with crazy IM/text abbreviations because I am not their audience for that sort of communication.

I suppose I have started off today on the bad side of … my email inbox.

I had this feeling I was going to have a lot of email today.
“Sybil, I died on the way to class today. Sorry. Did we do anything important?”
But, no massive lists to reply to.
We’ll see, now, if this 10am class (the one where only half showed Friday)
will check their email & come to my office to sign up for a Writing Conference.
“We’ll see,” my dad’s famous saying.

I had a dream that Ellen DeGeneres’ girlfriend had a child.
On TV, people were doing Ellen’s hair before an interview about the birth.
She looked so tired.