Spring 2026 Grading: DONE!

30 April 2026: Just hit submit on the last set of grades. As always, feels good. Like last semester, though, finishing this time seems different. Surreal and...anti-climactic? Or maybe just weird because what's ahead is so unsettled. It's hard to imagine what the next few months will look like...

But we must do what we must do. Chair-dancing resumes.

Pulled up Pandora, which offered me this tropical (and thus summer-y?) classic. 

 

This song will never not make me think of a parody version that I heard second-hand from an elementary school classmate, who heard it on the radio: "Last night I dream of some bagels..." I can't remember all of lyrics, but I believe they included "with butter dripping off the sides / poppy seeds, you decide..." Do I even need to remind you that I grew up on Long Island?

Speaking of Long Island, Pandora is now playing Taylor Dayne's "Tell It to My Heart" and we are dancing in this chair. 

Busy Saturday...

28 March 2026: Grading ENGL 407 Critical Essay Proposals at the end of a long Saturday. Grading all morning, NWP event in the afternoon, then--a treat!--dinner and a movie (They Will Kill You) with Amy, followed by housework and more grading...and I've got so much more on my plate for Sunday to even begin to feel caught up.

But the proposals are strong, reflections of my smart and creative students. And the day, while long, was pretty darn good. And I just watched the Yankees sweep the Giants in their opening series.

I'll take it.

Springing forward...

8 March 2026: Grading ENGL 102 essays (not too bad!) with the windows open while Bob's Burgers reruns play on the TV. Jo, who has been moving between the window and my chair/lap, is settled on the ottoman. Though most of the day was kind of cloudy, the sun is shining now--noteworthy because it's after 6:00 p.m.

So yeah: loving this time change and the spring vibes (though I know we aren't done with chilly weather--and I know tomorrow morning will be rough). 

Fall 2025 Grading: Done!

14 December 2025: A bit ago, I hit "submit" on the final set of grades for this semester. 

 

As if on cue, by the way, Jo jumped up right after I submitted and collapsed into a little nap (which ended kind of quickly, allowing me to type this). When she did so, I thought, "Yeah, this will do." No chair-dancing this year. Usually there's some sense of happiness associated with this moment, but this time, I'll settle for relief and a bit of comfort and love.

Grading Hawthorne essays...

28 October 2025: I have spent a lot of today grading papers about The Scarlet Letter. This is, to be clear, a very fun way to spend your day--if your students are as good as mine. 

They are wrestling with tough topics, ambiguous symbols, and everything that makes the book so good. They are also having fun with language. (More than a few of them are relishing using "ignominy," after they commented on how much Hawthorne loves that word.) 

And then there's just this phrase from one student's paper, which I noted should be the title of someone's memoir: "extreme expressions of mundane desires." 

Multitudes...

9 October 2025: The midterm exam prompt that gives me the most joy semester after semester in ENGL 204 is when I ask them to talk about a text that connects to something in their lives outside of the classroom. Here's some gold from an exam I graded today, where a student talks about "Song of Myself" and "contain[ing] multitudes": 

"Sometimes I feel like I can never pin down an idea of who I am to people, but I am large so of course it would be hard to put me in just one box." 

Spring 2025 Grading: DONE!

1 May 2025: Just hit "submit" on my last set of grades of the semester. These English 204 exams were kind of fun, especially when the students let themselves respond to prompts as genuine people. Talk about what surprised you, what you liked, which texts stuck with you. That stuff is so great. 

Anyway, here's to another semester in the books (almost) and to (we pray) a relaxing and restorative summer.

But first, some chair dancing, to this 80s classic that popped up on Pandora: Madonna's "Who's That Girl?"

Three down, one to go...

28 April 2025: Really pushed myself to get a lot of grading done over the weekend and today. That means that, as of right now, I am all caught up with grading and final grades submitted for three of four classes. (The practicum grades are already in, too.) The final set of assignments--the ENGL 204 finals--come in on Wednesday afternoon. So, if the stars align, I should be done with everything by Thursday. So close! 

Sorry 'bout that!

17 April 2025: "While reading these articles, I have been exposed to topics like sadism, mental instability, folklore, and more..." --a student writing about her annotated bibliography, a deep dive into Brontë scholarship. Made me laugh out loud. 

(She also had two sources about infanticide.)

Amused whilst grading...

11 March 2025: Everything is still trash out there, but I just read back-to-back ENGL 102 essays that unironically (I think?) use the word "whilst," which made me laugh. Is Gen Z bringing this one back? Such whimsy!

When they get it...

10 March 2025: "I learned that writing is a way of connecting with others." --one of my ENGL 102 students in the cover letter for her essay. 

Grading essays isn't the best way to spend a day of Spring Break, but stuff like this makes it much better.

When the grading goes quickly...

4 March 2025: You know you've got some good students doing good work when the grading goes quickly. That's what I told myself today as I moved through the first set of ENGL 301 Response Papers. We've got some good readers and writers in this crop. 

Midterm Grades: DONE!

2 March 2025: Just hit "submit" on the last set of midterm grades for this semester. Not a big lift this time, at least for this particular week; three classes' worth of papers came in earlier, so there were just one set of exams to grade and, as always, some calculating work. But a win is a win so, as always, we chair-dance, this time to "Chains of Love," by Erasure.* 

*starting to make sure that include the song title in posts as URLs have gotten broken or changed over the years. 

A little lighter...

18 February 2025: Pushed and pushed myself this weekend and today to grade and grade and grade. (No time or energy to do any on Monday.) At around 4:30 today, I finished all but three of the papers that came in on Friday. (The three that came in late can wait for tonight or even Thursday.) 

And when I realized that they were done? And that the book was in? And that I already sent in a conference abstract? And all my classes for tomorrow are prepped? That essentially nothing major is pressing on me?

That's a sense of lightness that I hadn't felt in a long time. Feels great. 

Yes, there's a list of things I need to get to. And this cold is still zapping my energy. But this little bit of lightness? It's quite nice. 

Grading, grading, grading...

16 February 2025: Yup: that's the story of today. Not (really) complaining. Actually feeling pretty good about the progress I've made. 

Wednesday night grading fuel...

29 January 2025: I am telling you: when everything else is absolute trash, my students keep me going. They are so funny and smart and beautifully human. Here's a bit from an essay proposal for ENGL 102.

Fall 2024 Grading: DONE!

12 December 2024: Just hit "submit" on the final set of grades, always a good feeling, but it's even more special when I think about how it started (COVID), what came in the middle (the election, a student's death), and the aftermath of all of that. 

Unfortunately, there's still non-grade-related stuff I need to get done in the next couple of weeks. And the new semester starts pretty soon. So there's that.

But for now? Chair-dancing, of course!  

  

Thanksgiving Break Grading: DONE!

27 November 2024: Finished grading my last few papers today. Honestly, given the size of the task, it went faster than I thought it would take longer. Spending tonight watching Bob's Burgers reruns, reading a bit, and maybe watching one of the movies on my "to watch" lists. (Already watched Woman of the Hour earlier.)

Quiet pre (and post) holiday days can be kind of weird for me, emotionally. Changes to my routine unsettle me a bit and sometimes that holiday season melancholy sets in. But focusing on the good, staying quietly busy, and looking forward to tomorrow at Erin and Eric's. 

Fall clean-up...

25 November 2024: Knocked out one of my least-favorite chores today: the fall yard clean-up. I had planned on doing only some of it, but ended up doing it all. I did somehow run over just the right (wrong) rock while mowing over some leaves and wrecked the mower blade. But that's a problem for Springtime Heidi. 

Also knocked out the ENGL 307 Response Papers (except for the one that came in a bit late). Steady progress on grading--and more quickly than I planned.

"Boogie Days"

24 November 2024: "Jamiroquai and Mark Twain also said, 'um, don't not do fun stuff 'cause your dad got scared one time.'" --Bob to Louise in tonight's episode of Bob's Burgers. 

Laughed out loud at that line (a call-back). Perfect accompaniment to finishing grading the last few ENGL 301 Annotated Bibliographies. Shew!