Only one week left, I cannot believe this, and I am growing increasingly sad to know that these students will not come back next semester. Why does it take so long to get comfortable with them? I will try to work on that exclusively during the first week of next semester.
Several things have happened this week. First, the student who at firs I thought was not coming back to my class and who had come back (and yes, I had given him a ... fourth chance I think it was) showed up on Monday but not since then and I haven't heard anything from him. I guess the final paper was too much for him. I do not know what to think, but what is sure is that I will not give him a fifth chance! Last time, I had sent him to have a talk with Tony but I do not think it had done any good because I thought he had understood that he really had gone too far this time but he came back! Told me that he was sorry, that he was going to change, that it was just hard for him, etc. And I was so upset with the situation that I told him once and for all about the way I felt: that he didn't respect me, that he thought everything I told him to do was useless, that he didn't treat me as a teacher, that he always made promises but never kept them... He answered that he had had no idea I had been feeling this way and that he was sorry, that things would be different from then on. And so, I allowed him back. And things did change, a little: he started to participate in class, to ask and answer questions, to make comments, to smile sometimes too. But his work did not show any improvement. I really did not think, "He's never going to make it." I did not have a negative attitude towards him or negative expectations. I truly gave him another chance, because sometimes people DO change and in fact someone in our class HAS changed a lot and I am very happy about that, someone I was ready to throw out of our class but made (but kept!) several promises too! I guess it is a question of luck on my part. Another student is gone too! Medical reasons! This is sad, and he will get an Incomplete grade, which means that we will have to meet next semester several times so that he can finish the required assignments and get a grade.
So, with my 12 remaining students, we worked on web pages on Monday again. Many students had requested more time to work on them and I think that this time, most of them were able to get a few pages working. I took their URL's (the ones that they sent me) and put them on our class list page so that the other students could also see them. I still do not know what I will do about this next semester. One student in particular became very enthusiastic about his pages and has been spending a lot of time outside of class to make them more exiting. He has done half of his pages in Chinese and the other half in English. He asked me some questions several times and I sent him an e-mail with some ideas of things he could do to improve his web site. I knew I would make one or two students realize how much fun it is and become real addicts like me!
On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I met with everyone individually once to discuss their final papers. I saw some good papers already, and two students are very enthusiastic about their research and writing way more than they are required too. I am very excited to read their papers! We talked about outlines, sources, formatting, how to divide the paper into different sections, how to integrate the research they have done for previous projects, how to present their arguments and their counter arguments, and many more. I know a few of my students are becoming tired of the topic but no one has complained and they are all making a good effort! I love them for that! They are not complaining or discussing, and they seem to be working really hard, for me and also because they understand the usefulness of writing such a paper. I have not completely wasted this semester! I have decided to give them a choice about the way I would grade this final project. I don't want to spend hours reading their paper and giving them feedback if they won't care about it, so I told them that they could either make an appointment with me and we would go over their paper and grade it together, or simply give me the paper and I would write a grade but not any feedback on it. We will see how that works. If it works well, I might do that for every paper next semester, although it requires a lot of time on my part and asking my students to spend an extra 30 minutes conferencing with me at the end of the semester might not be the best way to do it. If I have four students or more this time who come to read/grade their paper together with me, I will try it next semester too. I am hoping that they will come because it would show that they really care about their paper and want to learn not just for this class but also for themselves, and at the same time, the lazy me hopes that no one will come because I am a bit overwhelmed these days. However, I am not too excited to have to grade all these papers either, and doing it together with the students would be more fun! So I am hoping they will come!
Today, I had everyone read and review other people's papers (third drafts already!) with a form that I had written and which asked specific questions about the organization, the ideas, the format, and everything else that will count in their final grade. I can never make peer reviewing sound exciting and useful so I don't know if it will be useful or not, but reading other people's paper can never be entirely useless! I had them read and review two more papers during the weekend and said that these two reviews would count in the final grade for their project. I did that last semester with my 102 students and the results were great. Because they knew they would be graded, some of the feedback was excellent and I bet it really helped the students who received it. We will see how this one goes.
Next week is the last week!! Will I keep writing a "teaching journal" like this next semester? Will I keep a "feedback blog" where my students can complain and comment about the class anonymously? I do not know, we will see. Right now, I cannot really think about much because there is way too many things I need to do before I leave for Europe!
