Today is Sunday – the traditional day of rest.

But not for me (apologies Gershwin brothers).

I shall be sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by portfolios of student work, marking something called The Group Oral Presentation. Oh yes. Nothing as interesting as an essay. The marking of the Group Oral Presentation has four parts. The Group, The Individual, Peer Review, Self Review. Each one has to be marked separately and then added together to find the student’s overall mark. Some of it is very boring. For example – going through all the peer reviews for every group, typing up the comments their peers (the rest of the class) and then averaging out a mark out of five. The Group entails looking through the portfolio and reading group meeting notes (should you be able to find them) drafts, visuals, reference lists, class discussion ( I forgot the class discussion before) and magicking them into a mark. Of course I don’t use real magick. I use academic marking magick. Is there a difference? I’m not sure. The Individual requires marking their delivery of the presentation, as well as their individual effort in researching the topic and putting it together. And this year, in someone’s wisdom an extra criterion has been added where markers are supposed to assess the “value” of the student to the group. Again, I say to you, magick. The Self Review is the most interesting. Here the student has to reflect on the process of preparation etc through five guided questions. It can be very interesting. Mostly, they are very diplomatic and nice. Surprising.

Anyhoo, my fun filled weekend continues. In between times I need to do all my washing, (wash, dry, put away – if I can bothered), tidy this messy house and cook some kind of vegetable stew/soup concoction to freeze into lunch size portions. And of course I must check Facebook and Twitter regularly. And write a blog post. Oh, tick. Well done me. TV returns next week when the Term is Finished.
Until then I leave you with these TV thoughts: Glee, Big Bang Theory, Being Erica, Love Soup, Rockwiz.