Ah, it's that time of year. When the winter holidays beckon and your comments on student work nigh disappear. They're not going to be your students for much longer, so they don't have to worry about meeting your particular standards anymore, and just want the grade. Which is good, because at this point you're tired of correcting their citations (again) and asking 'where's the hypothesis?' on their 5th report.
Not that this semester was bad! I enjoyed my side trip along the adjunct path, especially given the supportive department at the institution. I encountered the normal plagiarism and disfunctional groups that unfortunately are so common, but I also enjoyed the small class sizes and seeing students' improvement. Not all groups, unfortunately - but there was that one group that failed the first report and pulled of a high B on the last report. Yea!
Next 'semester' I go full-time as a post-doc, which I'm so excited about. Teaching and post-docing this semester reminded me a lot of grad school, where you had very little time to concentrate on one thing before another paper or student demanded your attention. I'd start getting into my post-doc grove on Wednesday, only to take off for teaching on Thursday and Friday. Starting in January I'm going to be so productive (she said, crossing her fingers)! And along with the post-doc, maybe I'll actually get some of those thesis chapters published.
So to all those teachers and professors out there: the end is in sight. Make some coffee, add some Irish cream, and be ruthless in your efficiency and grading!
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