- COVID, now with new and improved Omicron 2.0, is still flourishing here and elsewhere. British Airways had their flight crews take off masks, and oh, look, their COVID rates rose. I'm still wearing a mask, and at least a third of the people I see at the grocery store are, too.
- I'm sure you all saw how UCLA posted a job offering with all the usual requirements, including 5 references, for a professorship for which you would be paid . . . nothing. This was in the sciences, and it probably had something to do with teaching for glory--er, faculty affiliation--when you already make lots of $ on grants, but still. Are we there yet at the English Department of the Future?
- Speaking of fancy schools doing dubious things, if you haven't read Rachel Aviv's New Yorker investigation of how U Penn treated one of its students, Mackenzie Fierceton, go read it; it's excellent. This follows a Chronicle of Higher Ed account that takes a skeptical view of her story; Aviv's account has a more complete and sympathetic version.
- Twitter is doing its usual blend of genuinely useful information and theory and contemporary culture fight-fests over stuff where I have no idea what they're talking about.
- In other news, I now believe that people should be required to get signed permission slips from all their neighbors before they put up outdoor wind chimes.
- Friday night, and still grading--how about you? It's that time of year when grading is kind of like bailing out a leaky rowboat: just when you think you've got one hole plugged up and the water in the boat goes down, another one springs up.
Now, I'm not complaining about the fact of having to grade. They're our students, and they deserve to have comments. I've never learned the trick of having them learn to love grades that are simply checks on a rubric, even though I've caved in and made some beautiful rubrics this semester. The comments help them, if they read them, and that's something I can't control.
It's the time that grading takes. I just don't understand how it can take so much time, even with all my little timer tricks. It just . . . does.
THANK YOU for writing.
ReplyDeleteCovid on the rise here based on wastewater numbers but so far the 'official' numbers don't show it due to RATS rather than PCRs and, so far the hospital numbers are not evil yet. Fingers crossed. I do think the current programs of pretending it isn't still here if we don't look/track is........ not realistic. I still mask and being qualified got another booster. NOTHING about the possible side effects of even 'mild' (meaning not in hospital) covid sounds like fun.
HOld on and thank you for keeping grading!
In grading hell here. Students love LOVE comments, but it takes so much fucking time. Last midterm I went through four ballpoint pens by the time I was done grading. The time needed is insane.
ReplyDeleteIn grading hell here. Students love LOVE comments, but it takes so much fucking time. Last midterm I went through four ballpoint pens by the time I was done grading. The time needed is insane.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, thank you! I so agree--nothing about getting COVID sounds remotely fun. Even if you have an extremely light case, like a bad cold (as one of my friends insists she did), who wants a bad cold?
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