A B C D F - Yep I'm Marking Exams!!!

Marking has been called the "bedpan" of teaching and personally I haven't found a more apt description but then again it is pretty hard to be creative when going through doldrums of correcting other people's mistakes. Sure there are the teachable moments, the "wow - i didn't expect you to do that well" surprises, the genuine pride that I do have when students succeed. But then there are the failures, the "obviously-didn't-study-and-probably-doesn't care" student wallowing in apathy and apparently likes the letter "F" - admittedly I sometimes struggle to understand how it is mathematically possible to bomb a true & false section of an exam!

Any-hows, I have officially completed the marking of one course (Interpersonal Processes) and for that I can celebrate - only two more courses' marking of final exams to go! Unfortunately - one of those courses (Communications) had 53 students, of which I've completed about 15. My other course (Philosophy & Programming of Youth Ministry) entailed a take-home exam and I'm saving that for last as I get to see firsthand the aspirations & dreams of ten people considering a calling & profession! Here's to emptying the bedpan and switching gears to a new year of teaching...oh yeah, I almost forgot - apparently I have to retool all my syllabi for 2007! So once I'm done marking - it's back to r & d my courses for the new year...

Syllabi Factory & Preparation H

Well - we've made the change-over from a modular based semester to a double-block semester - which means all my syllabi for semester one need to be ready for the first week of September. One new course that I have to create on the fly - Communications - is in process but I am moderately excited about it as change is good. Preparation can be tough - some would say its one of the toughest things about being an educator but I enjoy research and putting my notes for my presentations together. It's the marking that is the real "bed-pan" of the teaching world. Anyways - I'll be back in the trenches shortly!

Leadership Development

One of my favorite courses that I teach is Leadership Development. It is geared to a third year college student and encourages them to explore their own personal definition of leadership. Their major assignment is to develop a leadership portfolio which includes their personal philosophy of leadership, a set of personal core values, a life mission statement, a list of gifts/abilities/strengths/weaknesses, and finally a vision-casting discussion which looks at future goals or opportunities. As you can well imagine it is quite intensive but amazingly inspiring for my students to explore. The course wraps us this next week and their final exam is based on class presentations of their portfolio. I have to say that they raised the bar well and the presentations have been quite creative. It is very rewarding as a prof to see students excited to be in class and sharing their passion through their stories.

Time Flies

After entering in my title for this post, a picture of an old stop watch with dead flies flashed in my mind complete with cobwebs and dust. Time does seem to fly by these days and it is hard to believe we will soon be in the lovely month of March and the big melt! I have survived yet another onslaught of marking research papers and exams - whew! I am still puzzled how few college students actually proofread their papers or even use a handy automatic tool like spellcheck? Nine weeks of classes left, graduation, and a ten-day tour out west and the teaching year will be done. Four years flown by and in June Wendy and I will celebrate ten years of marriage! Time flies. Where's my fly swatter....I couldn't resist throwing a little wit in for good measure. The search for truth, for direction, for more questions to explore continues...