Saturday, December 28, 2002 :::
A Blessing
My neice is being christened today... She is so adorable and Rich (hubby) is the godfather.
May all her days be filled with as many family and friends as she has surrounding her today and may she always feel as loved as she is.
::: posted at 10:20 AM
Friday, December 27, 2002 :::
Post Xmas sloth
Did absolutely nothing yesterday... Have papers to grade and grades to submit (yes still wrestling with the horrible NYU system). I have locked myself in the office at the ambulance squad and I am not coming out until we get a call, or until I am done. (obviously the call takes precidence)
Anyway, sitting here listing to MSN's alternative station (ok music) trying to focus to grade a stack of WCC finals. (and trying not to distract myself too much - obviously not working..) Oh well - back to grading...
::: posted at 9:18 AM
Thursday, December 26, 2002 :::
Not too many happy "returns"
I hope everyone had a good xmas like I did! Hubby is getting better at gift buying (or is learning to ask others for help). There were some really great gifts (like a go board from Japan - its cool when you open a gift and can't read the writing on the box... - ordered real stones, and the containers to put them in too...) *hugs husband again*
There were a couple of gifts that I am going to exchange (not return mind you - exchange...) Got me a pair of pants I already have (its ok - what them in grey anyway..:) and some other odds and ends that just need a different version of the one I got.
Xmas morning was definately fun.. Between the two of us (we are both more interested in the giving part) we pile gifts in front of each other and wait for the other person to open... (takes a while to open gifts at my house!!) But thats ok..
Happy Holidays to all!
::: posted at 9:49 AM
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 :::
NYU's Grading System SUCKS!!
Why do universities feel the need to *upgrade* from perfectly good systems to completely crappy useless systems? This is the third evolution of an online course delivery system that they have used (WebCT, Prometheus, and now a home grown product) and IT SUCKS!!!
Reasons for extreme sucking:
1 - there is no way for me to view all the student's grades at once... I can see the grades for each individual assignment on one page, but not all assignments.. (of course not.. I mean teachers SO average individual projects and not semester grades? right?)
2-Cant download grades to a spreadsheet (major suckage)
3 - doesnt have anything that slightly resembles a way for the COMPUTER to do the averaging (heaven forbid - afterall averaging rows in a matrix is SOOO hard... (grrr)
4 - email addresses are 5 clicks away from the grading section (yes I am so pissed of I counted)... and there is no immediate way to give feedback to the students on assignments...ggrrrrr
5 - only teachers, not TA's can grade... so teachers must give account names and passwords to TA's if they are to get any work done!!
6 - see # 4 (still pissed about that)
7 - shouldnt the grades that the teachers enter be immediately linked to the report card and registrar so that we dont have to fill out BUBBLE SHEETS with the grades?? (after all this is the Information Technologies school...) ggrrrrr (how hard would it be to set up an sql query to do a data dump...hmmm... and another to do the upload if the two systems arent compatible... remember EVERYTHING imports/exports text files!!!
8 - Why is there no (*&^* way to save chats? Can't highlight and paste the words typed, cant save...therefore must enlist student to take notes of weekly chat sessions... so dumb!! and redundant... Hello - Department of redundancy department, how can we NOT help you today?
9 - Why when I make specific changes to the general content and format of the course does it not carry through for all courses? I now must (in the next few days or so 'cause I will not have time once school starts) go through and copy/paste all assignments and readings for the course.... SUCH A WASTE OF MY TIME!!!... (hmmm... turns to TA...)
There are more, but I am just going to leave it at this for now and go to bed....
-the very frustrated professor...
::: posted at 1:46 AM
Monday, December 23, 2002 :::
Happy Holidays!!
::: posted at 10:58 AM
Sunday, December 22, 2002 :::
Lord of the Rings
An excellent mix between good film - making and holding enough to the books for the purists....
All in all a very good time! Thank you to all who went so that I wouldn't have to go alone.
::: posted at 7:00 PM
