KYLady is
taking a bit of a break tonight to catch up her life on this blog. This is a break from what she should be doing
– writing announcements for her classes, planning next week’s assignments and in-class
festivities (i.e. lecture\discussion for Monday, and “something” for Wednesday),
and grading papers. With more classes at
one time than she’s ever had (13), and more students than she’s ever had at one
time (number unknown, but I think maybe around 160), it’s a lot to juggle. Only three of these classes are face-to-face;
the rest are online.
One of my
classes is a group of high school kids – upperclassmen (ok, and upperclasswomen…to
be politically correct). I go to their
school three mornings every week and they are getting credit for a college
class, which in theory, will save them (or more likely, their parents)
money. A student who enrolls in all the
courses for fall and spring could potentially graduate from high school with
half an associate’s degree at no cost to them.
All the credit hours are transferable to any public college in
Kentucky. It’s a pretty sweet deal.
However…most
of these kids are not mature enough to do college-level work. It’s not that they aren’t smart enough, it’s
that they don’t know how to manage their time, or how to organize their
commitments – high school kids have a lot of stuff going on. They also have this thing where they sit with
their friends in class, and socialize. A
month into the semester, it became apparent to us faculty that about 75% of the
students enrolled in a college course were failing because they were not
turning in assignments, not coming to class prepared, not studying for tests, and/or
not coming to class at all.
Anyway, we’ve all had multiple “Come to Jesus” meetings with them…with limited success. Finally, early last week, the high school announced a change in policy: for all college courses, students’ parents will be receiving mid-term grades…even for students who are already 18 years old. I’m not sure how that is possible with FERPA regs. Regardless, my students have indeed found new incentive and motivation to do their work. Toward the end of the week, there was a flurry of emails with apologies, pleas, and promises to make up late assignments. It is good, other than an avalanche of work.
Now that we are
officially into fall and the nights are getting cold (though still no frost,
fortunately), it’s about time to give up on the garden. I picked a sack of peppers and stuffed them for
our dinner tonight. I pulled up the last
of the radishes. There are still a few
carrots; I’m going to wait until frost is predicted, and then those will be
harvested. Some of the late cabbages
have small heads. I’ll just let those
grow for a while and see what happens.
The sun’s angle has changed and neither the garden nor the raised bed
get more than a few hours of sun these days.
Tomorrow, I’m picking the rest of the green beans. Soon it will be time to bring the house
plants in from the porch. I love my
plants, but they’re too much for our little kitchen. I’ll cut back the big ones and trim the vines
before bringing them inside.
Someone and
I went to visit little Alice today (and of course, Alice’s mother, Katie, as
well). Alice is adorable – smiling now,
and rolling over. Katie loves to dress
her up so that she looks extra cute.
Alice doesn’t seem to mind all the extra ruffles and frills.
 |
| Alice is Princess Leia |
Last
weekend, I got to spend a little time with Erin and Emily. Next weekend, I’m meeting Sarah in
Berea. She has a very big gig
there. I’m looking forward to visiting
Berea again and hearing Sarah. I hope we
can spend a little time together too…if she has time, and if I can make time.
