Back On Track

This week while I lounged around the house reading mystery novels and crocheting, I should have been revising my course. Really. I just spent the last couple of hours revising our schedule and grade break down for the rest of the semester. I didn't want to mess with the grade percentages, but if I hadn't there would have been too much to do for the rest of the semester. Some people are not going to like the changes, but over all I've been as fair as possible.

The problem is that now I have to write three new assignments. One I thought I'd already adapted from an old assignment, but nope. They are all related, so I think if I just do the adaptation I'd planned, the other two assignments will flow out of it naturally. The problem is that the magic assignment juice is just not flowing today. Maybe it's the weather.

Part of the problem is I just don't feel like trying to presuppose student questions, which is the essence of assignment writing.
I know that a well written assignment is supposed to be easy for the students to follow, incorporate elements of the rubric, and all of that junk that let's them know what you expect; but, really, I just want to give them the one sentence version and let them have at it. "In 7 - 10 minutes tell the class about the Snowball you've designed." It's not that hard. I really don't expect anything else.

What does 7 - 10 minutes really mean? What if I'm at 6 minutes 45 seconds? Will you time us?
Will we have to stand infront of the class?
Do we have to use sources?
What do you mean "tell"?
Should I use a Powerpoint presentation?
You mean, you actually meant it all those times you said we'd have to design a Snowball? I didn't know this class was about that.

I pretty much guarantee I'll hear each of these questions...including some version of the last one, and it makes me want to bash my head into a wall. Today is just not the day for me to tease out the one page version of that sentence. It's not that some of these aren't valid questions, they are. Normally I enjoy assignment writing, I'm just frustrated with myself for being in this situation.

It's that time in the semester when you start day-dreaming about the next course and how much better it will be. Hopefully, with the exception of my comps semester, my students don't realize I am as ready as they are to be done with the class.


Update: Assignments done!