Category Archives: Personal

Best final exam doodle EVER!

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I’m sure I’m not the only academic who receives final exams with doodles (as well as “thank you for the class” and “please don’t fail me!” messages). But I need to share a piece of exam artwork that transcends the bounds of doodling.

Indeed, it is a cartoon illustration that demonstrates good mastery of the concept about which the student was asked on that exam page. (In addition to the drawing, the student presented a perfectly correct and crystal clear written answer to the question. The drawing was an added bonus.)

Let me set up the cartoon with a brief explanation of the question so you can fully appreciate how wonderful it is:

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Something you don’t see every day (during finals week).

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I suppose I should have seen this coming. You provide a nice, quite room for the final exam, so why should it be surprising that a student takes this as an invitation to nap? Especially given that this is a student who attended — slept through — just about every class meeting of the term?
At least there was no audible snoring.

What part of ‘course requirement’ isn’t clear?

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On my last post, Kristine commented:

My favorite “finals week activity” was defending to two students why they couldn’t take the lab exams three weeks after all of their classmates took it, just because they realized now that they never showed up for class that week. Whew. Ten minutes each, and as emotionally draining as grading 100 exams.

I feel Kristine’s pain. And, I think this raises the larger question of what the problem is that keeps these students from understanding that “course requirements” are things that are required for them to do.

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How’s your week going?

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It’s finals week here. My brain hurts, and I’m on what is reputed to be the easier side of the student-professor divide, so I have great empathy for my students at the moment. (At least, for the ones who aren’t trying to put one over on me.)
In the last week, I have:

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Graduate school with kids: views from around the blogosphere.

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It started when someone asked Dr. B. for advice about starting a Ph.D. program with three kids in tow. Since then, the question has been bouncing around the academic blogosphere, with posts you should read at Academom and Geeky Mom. Although this is absolutely the worst time in the semester for me to fire on all cyliders with this one, regular readers know that I’ve shared my own experiences in this area, so I can’t stay completely out of it.
A brief recap of the current conversation:

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Stream of (un)consciousness linklove.

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You know how I was sick last week? I was all responsible and stuff, drinking lots of green tea and getting to sleep early and all, and over the weekend I actually felt reasonably healthy for like a day and a half. And now? I seem to have caught another nasty cold.
Which is to explain that this post may reflect my current state of not partaking as fully of consciousness as I generally like to. Also, in the interests of your own health, you should avoid licking the screen while reading this.

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A favorite card-game from my youth.

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As promised, I’m sharing the rules for the card game that my extended family played all through my youth. The idea here is that a set of rules for a bunch of favorite card games, a deck or two of cards, and a promise to play some of these games could make for an inexpensive — and personalized — holiday gift. So feel free to use this, or to share your own favorite card game (especially if it’s one that hardly anyone outside your little circle seems to know about).
The name of the game is Shanghai (though I can’t tell you why it’s called that — I don’t know), and here’s how you play it:

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