On waiting, grading and not fretting

So, my dad is still in the hospital. He has been told this in probably not his heart, but just to be sure, he’s awaiting a radioactive media test that will allow the docs to peek at the inner workings of his aged ticker. He’s grumpy, impatient, but incredibly grateful my mother’s been bringing him [...]

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Stealing text without citation is PLAGIARISM?

I am a teacher of College English at a midsized community college in New England.
Last week, after students were told to take their final versions of their compare and contrast essays home to insert all their citations both intext and in a works cited page, I got a paper on steroids from Alan with paragraphs  [...]

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Ten Things Too busy Tuesday

Chili has a great list of reasons she can’t blog and I am boosting her idea because I am in a very similar boat as she. Busily bailing as I go.
1. I have a stack of research papers that need to be graded for tomorrow morning at 8.
2. Dinner is what is now not the [...]

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Tearing my hair out won’t help

I’m  grading college composition papers at the moment, and trying not to alarm the sleeping Sephira at my feet.
I’m seething.
Thing is, I’m not surprised that my students generally didn’t listen when they were told to cite actual sources for their compare and contrast essays, but when they include opinions that cannot be supported as “fact,” [...]

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Let it not be bedbugs

Today I am having some difficulty focusing on my lesson plans for my college comp classes I begin teaching this week.
I’m trying not to scratch holes in my body, like I did to mosquito bites when I was a kid.
Something’s eating me at night. I’ve been getting bitten on and off for 6 weeks.
Having done [...]

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Ten Things Tuesday – Monkey’s Poem

1. Ahhh, coffee.  I stumble, bleary eyed, to darling husband who hands me a cup.  Our day wouldn’t be right without our coffee on the couch commune every morning. And when I say coffee, I mean black, strong and intense.
2. Yesterday, I faced up to something I had been avoiding – funny, things don’t just [...]

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Tetchy Things Tuesday – Missing Pieces

It happens about this point every summer. Five weeks past the time my daughters go off to their summer home, camp, I start to dream I’ve abandoned them. Two very early mornings ago, I dreamed I left much younger versions of my kids in supermarket in England and then, in a frenzied adrenalized state, fruitlessly [...]

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Nocturnal Bloodsuckers

The Northeast US has had five time more rain than this time last year – 34 days out of 40 – and the ecosystems around here are going berserk. Mosquitoes, those damned and pernicious pests, have thrived in all the murk, and come unbidden and unwelcome into my house.
Where they bite me at night.
Preferring ME [...]

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Photo Friday

So winter didn’t move in forever; it just stopped snowing and being a pain in the ass, took its storms and went home for the summer.  Happily, it wasn’t a pissant, and didn’t zap the fabulous growth outside up here in the Northeast with any surly, last minute killer frosts, and things are thriving.
I write [...]

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Ten Things Tuesday: Updates

1. It’s will be two weeks this Thursday since my dog Shem had his little operation and things, good to say, are fine.  We won’t see evidence of any drastic reduction of hormones until my other dog Wenchface goes into her next heat, but the territorial marking and other such overtly male dog stuff should [...]

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