And the Semester is Over

Every semester I always marvel at how quickly it seems the sixteen weeks go by. Sixteen weeks ago I was getting ready to hand out all the required paperwork and go through my usual this-is-how-the-class-will-work spiel. Now I'm returning the portfolios that demonstrate each student's successful or maybe not-so-successful semester. The portfolios mean a lot to me, maybe even more than they mean to the students who write the papers, the journal entries, the reflection essays that make up the final collection of work. As I go through them, I see the improvement made by those who want to do more than just slide by. I remember the days we worked on certain papers, the exercises I had the students do to improve their writing. I always wonder what I could have done differently to help those who are borderline; they completed all the work, but their writing shows they either didn't put in the effort needed or they just don't get the concepts that make up the course. These situations are always tough to call. I end up sitting with each of these students and discussing the options. These conversations help me try to make the right call, but at times, I continue questioning myself far into the next semester.

I'm already thinking of and making changes for next semester. One of my bigger projects is to go as paperless as possible. I purchased a penpad to use to respond to student work that will be sent to me electonically rather than given to me as hard copies. I've tried out the penpad a couple of times this semester with willing students, and the ones who received their papers back with my response given via penpad liked how I was able to write on their papers just as if I had done it on a hard copy. My penmanship leaves a bit to be desired, but I'm going to continue practicing with it over break to try and improve that. It'll be interesting to see if I can pull off using less paper by using the penpad.

I have other ideas for change in the works, and I'm sure I'll write about these. For now, I'm going to set my sights on other projects, projects I have a hard time getting to during the semester due to time constraints. One project is the book I've started. I should be finishing up chapter 3, but I keep going back to flesh out the characters a little more in chapters 1 and 2, so chapter 3 has come to a standstill. I need to take the advice I give to my students: don't go back, go forward. I can go back later, after getting further into the book, but for now it's important to move forward to get a framework into place.

So here goes. I have some time before picking kids up from school. I'm going to use that time to go foward in the book.

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