the end is nigh

It’s the last week of the semester. Hooray I anticipated getting to do some research this week, but things haven’t quite worked out as I’d planned.

Instead, in the 400-level class for majors, I have:

• Graded 40 papers
• Caught 8 students plagiarizing on their papers
• Rebuked 4 of them in person over their offenses
• Been impressed by their maturity when meeting with me about their plagiarism (two even apologized for making my job harder!)
• Offered an incomplete and extra help to a crying student completely unprepared to do work at the 400-level
• Given 1 exam
• Not yet graded 5×40 short-answer questions

In the next 48 hours, I will

• Grade those pesky short answer questions
• Give an exam in my 100-level course
• Calculate & post grades for both courses
• Finish assembling my first year review packet
• Finish commenting on a draft of a masters’ thesis
• Make notes on my syllabi so I remember how I want to change them for next semester/year
• Return to the research paper I last worked on about 2 months ago & hopefully finish it enough to send it back to the 2nd author
• Halfheartedly clean the house in anticipation of my brother-in-law’s arrival on Sunday
• Do all of our holiday shopping (three cheers for the internet!)