Actually, this is more a mistake of teaching, but "sin" sounds so much racier, doesn't it?
Here's my mistake of the semester, so far: I gave my students an assignment that's good in many ways, but that I'm not quite sure how to grade.
It's not a huge assignment, but it's a bit complex to think how to grade. So I've been procrastinating about grading, which has made it even worse, of course. (Procrastination about grading is my prime teaching mistake, I think.)
I really, really need to just sit down with this and grade.
Hmmm, I wonder if I get a radio for the front part of my house... I should look at radios! And maybe go out to buy one! Yeah... because that will be a useful strategy, right?
When I have put myself in that situation, I've often found that I figure out what I was looking for after reading/examining a few of the turned in assignments, and then putting them down and doing something else. If you haven't tried that, I highly recommend it-- procrastinating in the middle is way more productive than procrastinating before starting.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally I'll be grading an exam and discover a question that isn't very clear, or else maybe it made perfect sense when I wrote it but now I can't figure out what I was trying to draw out of the students' minds. What amazes me is how many students can offer interesting responses to questions even when I'm not quite sure what I want from them.
ReplyDeleteJust give everybody an A and they will be very happy and then you don't have to figure anything out. ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou'll all be happy to know that I figured it out. I'm not sure I'll use this assignment again, though.
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