Oh, thank God!

Yesterday, I finished grading first drafts of my students' last paper for the summer semester.  Their revisions are due Friday, as are their last blogs.

I have totally lost patience for my summer students.  Most of them seem to have only taken my class because they thought a summer course would be easier: either less work, or a teacher that grades easier because they don't want to work.  Well, that might work with some classes; however, I make them do almost the same amount of work (sixteen fewer blog posts, because I don't make them do four posts per week), and since I don't want to work, I tend to get grouchy and grade harder than I do during a regular semester. 

And this summer, the students really tried my patience...about half seemed to have not read the textbook.  A few needed tutoring, but there were no tutors in our campus's learning center for English over the summer.  And one had no idea she couldn't lift whole we articles and post as her blog post with linked credit with no work of her own, and then, when she got no credit, thought I'd let her have a redo. 

The worst offender, though, was one that set her right and left indents a full inch in from the margins, and still didn't make page requirements.  She did this on every paper.  And then, on top of that, created a new blog every week instead of putting new posts on the one she created at the start of semester.  And this despite the chapter on that assignment in my textbook specifically telling them not to do that, and giving explicit instructions on what to do.  And she had the gall to ask me how she could pass my class.  Simple, sweetheart: READ THE CHAPTERS, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE ASSIGNMENT SHEETS, AND DON'T TRY TO CONVINCE ME THAT THREE PAGES (instead of the minimum of four) WITH TWO INCH MARGINS FULFILLS THE REQUIREMENTS!!!  And DON'T try turning in a five page paper with a page and a half of text, two inch margins, and two blank pages before a couple of half-assed works cited entries for your research paper (which has a minimum of five pages of text and a good works cited page). 

Thank God I've got three weeks before the fall semester starts.  After this summer, I'm going to need it.