Come quickly, summer of little responsibility!

My semester is finally over. I submitted my last grades today. And within 2 hours I got my first email from a student wanting to know why she got one grade instead of another. I hate that. I don't just hand out grades. I average together their scores on everything and get a number. Then a grading scale tells me what letter that number corresponds to. Normally, it's someone who failed to realize that missing 10+ classes would affect his/her grade. But not this time, no. Because this particular school uses a plus/minus grading scale. So this one was wondering why she got an A- instead of an A. (The top of the scale starts with A, so there's no A+. It just goes: A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc. on down to the F).

In some respects, I like the plus/minus scale. But in others, I hate it. Personally, I think that if we had used it at the college I attended, I would have hated it. I don't like the fact that you could technically earn all A's during your college career, but not have a 4.0, because an A- earns you a 3.7 instead (or something like that). So in some respects, yes, I get this student's frustration because maybe she was trying to make it through college with a 4.0. But on the other hand, why passive-aggresively email me and suggest that somehow, I miscalculated or incorrectly entered it? ("I was wondering if perhaps there was a mistake in my grade, and was wondering why I got an A- instead of an A.) Yeah, there was a mistake in the grade: You got a B on one paper. Grr.

I'm not really mad at the student. I'm mad at the grading scale. And life in general because I cannot ever seem to get through a single semester when I don't have a someone crying foul over a grade that he/she earned.

This is one of the many reasons I have determined this semester that although I do like teaching, it's not what I want to do forever. So, Library Science it is. I'll just keep trying stuff until something fits. Sooner or later, right? I guess when all is said and done, I can always consider a career in retail. [please note the sarcasm]

I'm not really saying anything in this post, so enjoy the nothingness.

The school year is almost over. Two of my three schools are done for the summer, and the last one finishes up next week. I'm looking forward to summertime. Less stress, more time with the hubby who is not going away for 3 months. Yay!

I will be back at KMart, though. It looks like my first day will be the 22nd of May. I'll probably stick around in to the fall, too, as I won't be teaching as much as I was this semester. 2 sections of composition and 1 FYE course at one university, and then my open learning courses at the other. Shouldn't be too bad, especially if my boss is able to put me on morning filling like she said she wants to. I can't say I'm super excited to work in retail again, but I am looking forward to seeing my KMart peeps again. They're good people.

I've made a life decision, and this time, I'm sticking with it. MLIS. That's where I'm going. I'm working on my apps this summer so I can get them top-notch, and then I'll apply this fall for the next year's admission. So this time next year will [hopefully] find me preparing to go back to school. I'm applying to three schools: University of Indiana Bloomington, University of Washington Seattle, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Keep the fingers crossed for me. I need to nail my GRE and personal statements. My grades are good, my recommendations will be good. So if anything's going to keep my out, it will be my first standardized test score since the GRE, and my inability to express what I want out of potential career in Library Science.

Prayers and good wishes come the fall. As for now, I'm going to enjoy my brief break from the madness of teaching college composition.