Oh dear...but i do agree ;o)

I recently have been doing some teaching of Bachelor stuents at a local
university. I enjoy the teaching, but *HATE* with a passion the marking
of asignments and exam papers. I'm currently in the middle of a 70 job
lot as the students have had their end of semester exams. It's a
particularly frustrating exercise because I have to give positive
feedback even when the student clearly has no grasp of what they are
supposed to have learned in the course.

Anyway, HRFL Tiger is most put out that I have to pay attention to the
exam papers instead of him. So he did what I've been wanting to do all
day. He threw up a hairball over them. GO TIGER!

Quite what I'll say to the chief examiner about it I have yet to decide,
but I feel sure I'll think of something!

Helen M (Very frustrated and fed up of marking)


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"Helen Miles" wrote in message
news:034bd337bc0633e00fb973bbb7e97ac4.76411@mygate .mailgate.org...
I recently have been doing some teaching of Bachelor stuents at a local
university. I enjoy the teaching, but *HATE* with a passion the marking
of asignments and exam papers. I'm currently in the middle of a 70 job
lot as the students have had their end of semester exams. It's a
particularly frustrating exercise because I have to give positive
feedback even when the student clearly has no grasp of what they are
supposed to have learned in the course.


Heh - I've been doing the same thing... and I wonder - do we have the same
students?? I was teaching Excel. One of the things I had to cover was to get
them to be able to do *basic* calculations utilising some easy data. Oh
dear, oh dear, oh dear. Considering they are all supposed to have GCSE
Maths, I was shocked by some of the lack of basic multiplication & division
skills.

Anyway, HRFL Tiger is most put out that I have to pay attention to the
exam papers instead of him. So he did what I've been wanting to do all
day. He threw up a hairball over them. GO TIGER!


Mine only got as far as a paw print on a feedback form I'm pleased to say
;-)


Quite what I'll say to the chief examiner about it I have yet to decide,
but I feel sure I'll think of something!

Helen M (Very frustrated and fed up of marking)



I know that feeling.

Cheers, helen s


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

In article
lgate.org, "Helen
Miles" wrote:

I recently have been doing some teaching of Bachelor stuents at a local
university. I enjoy the teaching, but *HATE* with a passion the marking
of asignments and exam papers. I'm currently in the middle of a 70 job
lot as the students have had their end of semester exams. It's a
particularly frustrating exercise because I have to give positive
feedback even when the student clearly has no grasp of what they are
supposed to have learned in the course.

Anyway, HRFL Tiger is most put out that I have to pay attention to the
exam papers instead of him. So he did what I've been wanting to do all
day. He threw up a hairball over them. GO TIGER!

Quite what I'll say to the chief examiner about it I have yet to decide,
but I feel sure I'll think of something!

Helen M (Very frustrated and fed up of marking)

When I was going through the galley proofs of one of my books, Clifford
(RB) quite carefully aimed a hairball at two chapters. Calling the
managing editor at the publisher to ask for new cover pages, at least,
she explained that she was used to such from her three editorial
assistants, and, if I had no corrections for the pages in question, not
to worry about it.

"Helen Miles" wrote in message
news:034bd337bc0633e00fb973bbb7e97ac4.76411@mygate .mailgate.org...
I recently have been doing some teaching of Bachelor stuents at a local
university. I enjoy the teaching, but *HATE* with a passion the marking
of asignments and exam papers. I'm currently in the middle of a 70 job
lot as the students have had their end of semester exams. It's a
particularly frustrating exercise because I have to give positive
feedback even when the student clearly has no grasp of what they are
supposed to have learned in the course.

Why on earth do you have to give positive feedback if their work is crap? Or
has the education system gone all PC since I was in school (and often got a
bollocking from the teachers if my work wasn't the absolute best I could do)

Anyway, HRFL Tiger is most put out that I have to pay attention to the
exam papers instead of him. So he did what I've been wanting to do all
day. He threw up a hairball over them. GO TIGER!

At least HRFL Tiger knows how to tell it like it is :-) Go Tiger!!!

Changing the subject slightly (sorry), my Sister-In-Law applied and got
through the first round of "Big Brother" the TV show. One of the myriad of
extremely personal questions she had to answer was "What does a relative
that isn't a parent or sibling think of you?" Since she has no other
relatives she could easily contact besides me that fit that description, she
asked me to describe her, and to be honest about it. This proved difficult,
because she had to read my answer. It took me a long time to come up with
this description, but I was quite pleased with it:

Very much her own person, she knows her own mind. _____ has a unique
outlook on life and is willing to do what it takes to acheive her
aims. She thrives on the company of others and makes a great first
impression. _____ can be very gregarious when the mood takes her, and
she meets life challenges head on. Assertive and resourceful, she is
always interesting to be around.

I was most disspointed that it didn't end up being used (she said that she
thought I thought she was hard working, honest and generous. *snort*)

Yowie

"Yowie" wrote in message


Why on earth do you have to give positive feedback if their work is crap? Or
has the education system gone all PC since I was in school (and often got a
bollocking from the teachers if my work wasn't the absolute best I could do)//

They're all into this "Constructive critism" crap. One exam paper is so
utterly abysmal, I've just put a great big "F" on the front and written
"This is so bad, I can't even mark it!"

The projects they had to do had to explore conservation & ecological
theory to save a species. I know that I managed to convey what i wanted
in the report, as some of the projects are down-right spectacular and
one guy did one on Sumatran Tigers that littery blew me away it was that
good. (I've nomintaed him for the school prize). The problems is, I
would dearly like to write on others "Maybe it would help if you didn't
parrot large tracts of text back at me from the book I recommended, and
by the way you still know f*ck-all", but somehow I don't think that
would be construed as constructive! ;o)

Tiger definitely had the right idea!

Helen M


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

Helen Miles wrote:
I recently have been doing some teaching of Bachelor stuents at a local
university. I enjoy the teaching, but *HATE* with a passion the marking
of asignments and exam papers. I'm currently in the middle of a 70 job
lot as the students have had their end of semester exams. It's a
particularly frustrating exercise because I have to give positive
feedback even when the student clearly has no grasp of what they are
supposed to have learned in the course.

Anyway, HRFL Tiger is most put out that I have to pay attention to the
exam papers instead of him. So he did what I've been wanting to do all
day. He threw up a hairball over them. GO TIGER!

Quite what I'll say to the chief examiner about it I have yet to decide,
but I feel sure I'll think of something!

Helen M (Very frustrated and fed up of marking)


Heh....knowing Tiger's track record, I'm surprised he didn't spray
them instead... Or perhaps that's his method of claiming turf,
and he doesn't *want* to claim the papers...

I know some of the lab reports I had to grade were fairly abyssmal.
We actually told the students exactly what we wanted in the report,
and some of them *still* didn't put those items in. It was a "core"
class, so a lot of non-majors and first year students were taking it,
but still...if you're given the outline of what's supposed to go in
to the report (intro, specific data tables, etc.), you should at least
be able to make sure all the components are there, regardless of how
well formulated they are.

We actually offered time for rewrites. Some students *still* left
things out. And I took points off if they obviously didn't read my
overall comments in the first "draft", even where I didn't dock points
the first time. No-one got full credit, but I was easier on them than
the person who taught the first lab section...

Loved the teaching. Grading....eh....well, it *was* nice to see some
of the students obviously "getting it" or showing marked improvement..

Purrs that you survive your frustrations -

Chris, Tripper, Katie (who loved helping), and Hazard

"Helen Miles" had some very interesting
things to say about Oh dear...but i do agree ;o):

They're all into this "Constructive critism" crap. One exam paper is so
utterly abysmal, I've just put a great big "F" on the front and written
"This is so bad, I can't even mark it!"
The projects they had to do had to explore conservation & ecological
theory to save a species. I know that I managed to convey what i wanted
in the report, as some of the projects are down-right spectacular and
one guy did one on Sumatran Tigers that littery blew me away it was that
good. (I've nomintaed him for the school prize). The problems is, I
would dearly like to write on others "Maybe it would help if you didn't
parrot large tracts of text back at me from the book I recommended, and
by the way you still know f*ck-all", but somehow I don't think that
would be construed as constructive! ;o)
Tiger definitely had the right idea!

I hope it was one of the really bad ones he commented on. :-)

--
"The universe is quite robust in design and appears to be
doing just fine on its own, incompetent support staff notwithstanding.
:-)" - the Dennis formerly known as (evil), MCFL

"Chris Havlicek" wrote in message
news:nzxNd.1687$53.1586@lakeread07

Heh....knowing Tiger's track record, I'm surprised he didn't spray
them instead... Or perhaps that's his method of claiming turf,
and he doesn't *want* to claim the papers...;

He tried. Trust me, he tried! Fortunately, he didn't succeed, thank
Bast.

We actually offered time for rewrites. Some students *still* left
things out. And I took points off if they obviously didn't read my
overall comments in the first "draft", even where I didn't dock points
the first time. No-one got full credit, but I was easier on them than
the person who taught the first lab section...

These students are like blocks of wood (well some of them). In my first
lecture, i was talking about hybridisation and had a picture of a
kangaroo humping a sheep. Not one student cracked a laugh. It was like
extracting teeth!
I've got to the stage where I skim read the papers, and if they look
vaguely interesting and have some facts I didn't know, I read them
properly. Otherwise, I look for the main points, and if they're mostly
all there I give a random mark in the 50's/low 60's. They get second
checked anyway.

Loved the teaching. Grading....eh....well, it *was* nice to see some
of the students obviously "getting it" or showing marked improvement..

After a couple of lectures, the teaching became a lot of fun and I goit
some really positive course feedback.

Purrs that you survive your frustrations -

Thanks And HRFL Tiger is helping enormously ;o)

Helen M


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Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

Helen Miles wrote:
I recently have been doing some teaching of Bachelor stuents at a local
university. I enjoy the teaching, but *HATE* with a passion the marking
of asignments and exam papers. I'm currently in the middle of a 70 job

Oh yeah. Grading exams, homeworks and papers sucks! I once was the
teaching assitant to a class of 100 college freshmen. Not fun!

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

in article , Helen
Miles at wrote on 2/6/05 2:31 PM:

I recently have been doing some teaching of Bachelor stuents at a local
university. I enjoy the teaching, but *HATE* with a passion the marking
of asignments and exam papers. I'm currently in the middle of a 70 job
lot as the students have had their end of semester exams. It's a
particularly frustrating exercise because I have to give positive
feedback even when the student clearly has no grasp of what they are
supposed to have learned in the course.

Completely sympathize with you there. 60 or so a week art essays. Although,
many really do pick it up well, but some......egad.


Anyway, HRFL Tiger is most put out that I have to pay attention to the
exam papers instead of him. So he did what I've been wanting to do all
day. He threw up a hairball over them. GO TIGER!

ROFL! The advantages of online teaching is no physical papers to be puked
on.

Quite what I'll say to the chief examiner about it I have yet to decide,
but I feel sure I'll think of something!

Helen M (Very frustrated and fed up of marking)