Good Use Of Spring Break

Spring break is coming to an end and that means I enter the busy season of my classes. By busy I mean that from here to the end, almost every session students will be completing an assignment that needs to be graded. While that will certainly make it easier in terms of preparing lesson, I will have to critique all the work and that takes time.

I used to say to my dad, when he would complain about having so much work to grade, “If you don’t want to grade it, don’t assign the work”. Of course, that honestly is not an option based on requirement of the college. Put another way, things sure are different when the shoe is on the other foot.

So while my busy time is about to start, the question is, how do I assess myself in terms of the way I used Spring Break. Like many students, I sometimes procrastinate (or perhaps it is just prioritizing). This time around, however, I got everything accomplished that needed to be done, well almost everything.

As you may well know from previous posts, on Thursday, we will begin speeches in my evening class. Two students who were there before break started signed up for that day. I have assigned a number of students who were not there to speak on this day. Still, I have not heard back from any of the students.

I know what will happen (or at least I have strong speculation). The bottom line is, for one reason or another, giving me one excuse or another, there will probably be no more than four speeches given, and my guess is only two (the two students who signed up for this date early before break). That means I need to come up with something, related to the course, not already on the syllabus, to keep them busy if I need to fill time.

Perhaps I will bring in a video of famous speeches in U.S. history. I need to stop and actually put something together. I should not have to. It really is not fair since there should be a number of speeches being given, but life isn’t always fair and this is the reality. Unlike a number of my students, I will come to class prepared!