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February 13, 2005
tj 308: week 4
status check: still rolling.
when i'm feeling helpless, i visualize the first few weeks of this course like a football bobble. "ooh, he's got it, no, he's losing it, wait, it's in the air, no, his fingers are on it, you know, i really don't think we can call that 'control of the ball!'"
when i'm more optimistic, i see it like scattering wildflower seeds in a large arc over the patch of grass-less mud beside our house last spring. we had no idea what would grow when, & for a while we weren't sure anything would, but then this wild, unpredictable blooming started, & little plantlings that had been invisible burst forth.
i'm hoping, & most days betting, on the seeds. the re-starts weren't wasted efforts to scrap, but planted kernels we're obliquely watering, that we'll come back to with that sunlight, & when we do, strange & wonderous things will bloom.
more specifically, i have several incomplete stacks of papers i keep delaying grading because i'm not sure yet what to grade them for, and i don't want to be capricious; i also don't have all of any of them, and i'm a little anal about that. it's infinitely preferable to me to look at everybody's initial imitation response at once, when i'm in an initial imitation response groove, than to read 10 of them now, 4 next week, 2 the week after, & always wonder where the last three are. i don't want a procrastinated groove, i want to do this, return it, discuss it, move on!
but they'll need these for them to move on, so the ones who are on the ball shouldn't have to wait. sports metaphors infiltrate everything. about the rest of it, though, i'm seriously thinking about just holding on to it until the end of the unit, then commenting on & returning stacks of things to students who i've asked to bring folders to class, & having them respond to their portfolios as a whole, right there, first-glance-back over the stuff they've done. it's not just a stalling impulse; if i do that, they won't have the chance to lose any of the pieces. i'll keep collecting, i'll know where things are, & then when they turn those folders in, i won't have to search & wonder where things are & what in the world they've madly labeled them, because i'll just have seen all of the pieces already anyway.
sounds crazy. we'll see what happens. that's been the most persistant motto of our year so far: we'll see. but at least with becky back online--and planning (knock on wood) to be back in the classroom on tuesday, there's more of a "we" to squint ahead & try to do this seeing!
Posted by ttobryan at February 13, 2005 10:05 AM