End of the UH semester ... Part I

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Most papers from UH ENGL 1303 have been turned in, though two were absent and sent their papers in via e-mail. One male, however, who did not participate in peer review, failed to show yesterday as well. He's one of the brightest students in the class, and has hopes of transferring to Chicago, but he has a poor attitude and feel supercilious towards me and other students. He has strong religious beliefs and has little patience for non-believers. Yet, occasionally, I can see some insecurity, as for example when he approaches me one-on-one to ask a specific question about his writing -- never about class or ideas, but specifics about appropriate format, etc. He rarely turns in daily work, and is often late for class. Because "professionalism" makes up 10% of this grade, he will not get an A. If he fails to turn in this paper, he'll fail the course as well.

As of 1411 Tuesday, I'm still writing my research paper on Edmund Hickeringill for Dr. Rothman. It's a struggle, and I feel that it's less research as much as diagnostics of The Mushroom with some interlinear notes. Likely a B paper.

I've got an interview this evening for my folklore collection project (he'll likely cancel) and have scheduled an interview tomorrow with three LDS missionaries for the same project. I'll be spending much of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday transcribing those interviews, then throwing together something that resembles a graduate paper for Dr. Lindahl. The paper will be late, but he'll accept transcriptions by Monday.

Finally, I'm slowly putting together my teaching portfolio for Dr. Fish's College Teaching class. I'm creating an on-line portfolio using Google Sites, which allows me to embed video and other hyperlinks. It's more "wow" than substance. But she's had positive comments on my papers, so I'll likely get an A there.

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