I have finally recovered from grading my first homework assignment.

I started out by naively assuming that it would be a piece of cake. It was a very simple assignment, the class could practically cut and paste the information off the web, cross check with the extremely detailed instructions, and hand it in for a perfect score.

First, 20% of the class didn't even bother to hand it in.
Another 60% of the class apparently needed even more detailed instructions.
15% of the class sought to impress me by handing in a bigger and better assignment... only half of them didn't do it the right way and the rest... well, instead of impressing me it just made me have to look over more pages... and left me wishing they would just follow the directions.

The first time I went through and reviewed them all I finished up and I had a big black cloud over my head. If I had graded things then, everyone would have failed.

Instead, I took two days, then came up with a rubric for how to grade the assignments. I am quite proud of that, because until two days ago I didn't even know what a rubric was. Anyway, that helped keep me fair and balanced, and at the end of the day they didn't all do as badly as I originally perceived (because I was nice).

However, after a review this week, they are going to get either a pop-quiz or a repeat homework assignment next week. That'll teach em.

I hope.