Participatin'

So I'm thinking that I should take a more active role in the class blog here, so I want to post on the topics.  On the other hand, I don't want to step on anyone's toes, since I feel that someone would feel odd posting an opinion that ran directly counter to mine on a topic -- or even worse, if we thought exactly the same way about something, so that you'd feel like you had to write, "Wow, I think exactly the same thing that Mr. Humphrey thinks . . . swell."  Which means that I will be posting a week behind schedule, to give you all time and opportunity to post your responses without any interference from me.  And if you post late, well you're already deserving of some trials and tribulations for your lateness, so tough cookies.

How would I grade this class?  Well, I already graded all of you, so there doesn't seem much point in saying more than that.  I did want you to recognize that it is very difficult to assign a grade to a person for anything larger than a single assignment; I can look at a vocab test and say, "Sure, she only knew three-quarters of the words -- that's a C."  But it's a little more troubling to look at a student, especially someone I have some kind of connection with owing to our conversations over the last four months, and think that the grade you earned in the class is actually what you deserve.  Since I myself earned terrible grades in high school thanks to my own laziness, I don't feel too bad about giving low grades to students I like, but I really hate giving high grades to students I don't like.  Feels like I'm rewarding people for being some form of twit, and I don't like doing that.  And I do both of those things (low grades to nice students, high grades to not-nice students) every semester.  So you should be aware of that -- hence the assignment to grade the class.

I'm glad so many of you liked the class.  I am sorry for the boring out-loud reading of Fahrenheit 451, but honestly, what the heck is wrong with reading a book?  Why do I need to make a book more exciting than it already is with projects and assignments and things?  Isn't it enough that it's a book?  I understand if you didn't like it -- well no I don't; I love that book and I can't fathom why people would think it was boring, but I know people do, so I get that some of you probably did -- but I am a teacher, not a clown, so your amusement is not my goal.  Your education is.  Sorry if you didn't learn anything, or didn't learn as much as you thought you should; we'll try and do better next semester.

I'd give this class as a whole a C.  You did enough to learn and make it a decent class, but not enough to make it something special; some of you did a whole lot and some of you did doodly-squat.  I consider myself a pretty straight-C teacher -- I excel at some things and am terrible at others, so average overall -- and this last semester was about par for the course.