I guess I just need a place to rant and rave about the end of the semester stress on professors. Students complain and groan over late-night study and cram marathons and paper-writing sessions. As soon as that last final is over - they are GONE! WHOOPEE! It is summer. OK - I remember those days. What a stress it was before that last day. I remember having to take 3 finals and write 2 term papers and do 1 class presentation. It never dawned on me what I left behind. Let me tell you students what is left behind.
I have 19 lengthy research papers to read and grade - about 42 if you count the rough drafts. There were 40 tests to complete grading this week - probably 60 journal articles not counting one class's summary journal articles (there are 40 of those), 40 virtual "babies" to look at, 4 meetings to attend, 1 entire day at the high school to present students' projects to high school kids, 17 oral presentations to watch and grade. And that's just the last 2 weeks. That doesn't count the 18 hours of class time last week, 6 hours this week and the time spent with my online course. Oh, and I need some laundry done and I have to eat and sleep sometime. Every semester I wonder why I don't just lecture, lecture, lecture and then give bubble-sheet tests and be done with it. But I honestly don't think that results in good learning. I love what I do until the last two weeks of every semester. Then I stress out beyond all belief. A colleague of mine looked so stressed I thought he was ill. I understood.
So, students, after taking that last test, writing that last paper, doing that last course evaluation, putting on those shorts and heading south, think about me and all my colleagues knee deep in your work and only until next Tuesday at noon to turn grades in. Now - back to grading.......
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