After several days of solid marking, I’m relieved to say that I have finished all 100 exam papers from my nursing students. On reflection it was too easy, some of the sections getting 100% correct answers in every paper; either that or I have exceptionally gifted students, or they have an exceptionally gifted teacher. :-D
What was certainly true was that it was an exceptionally boring exam to mark. Next time I’ll make them draw some pictures and I’ll grade how well they keep in the lines.
My frowning face was occasionally replaced with a smile when I came across a funny answer in a gap-fill sentence — so much more satisfying than multiple choice.
Some examples:
- You should puncture a patient with a needle.
- We use tweezers to transport a patient who can’t sit up.
- A triage nurse makes an initial problem.
- Dead patients are taken to the window.
- Each bed produces 4.5 kg of sweat daily.
And my favourite …
- Arms and legs are called … arms and legs.
I live for the little things that bring joy.
I’m halfway through an Outlook training day for which I signed up after Outlook 2010 was introduced at our university over the summer, replacing the previous Groupwise system. I had hoped for a sleek overview of an ultra-efficient workflow, but instead we’re working our way along the toolbar, stopping every now and then to send each other emails trying out the new tricks: customized voting (No; No; No) and Directing all replies to the least IT competent colleague.
Time’s dragging, though, so I started fiddling around and tried to set up an auto mail storm. In rules, I set every mail from myself to be forwarded to myself. I had hoped that it would create a perpetual cycle of self-mailing, but sadly it stops after one cycle. Too bad.
Anyone got some other impossible rules?
As if I didn’t have better things to do, including 48 assignments to review on Moodle, I got distracted — intrigued then captivated — by a nifty java applet to represent my Last FM recent listening into a wordle, or text picture. Here it is:
Image of my recent listening
Now back to the salt mine.
… Couldn’t resist one more wordle
Wordle of recent posts on Stet
News just in: seven out of ten Dutch people have participated in a poll about Geert Wilders.
Whatever issue Wilders addresses becomes the discussion of the day, and in such a way that Wilders himself becomes the issue once again. I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories, but I read somewhere that someone’s brother-in-law overheard a source close to a rumour … that Wilders was a Mossad agent, codenamed Mephistopheles.
Watching Wilders today contemplating the debate on dual passports that he had initiated, I found myself straining to tweak Evelyn Hall‘s famous defence of free speech, usually misattributed to Voltaire:
I do not agree with what you have to say,
but you’ll deaden the deaf with your right to say it.
On a more sombre note, another quote that is attributed to Voltaire strikes a sensitive point in recent political events in the Netherlands:
The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
However, I’ve only found the quote in English, without reference to an original source, and without a trace of an original version in French.
Since the start of classes in September, I’ve had very little time to blog. In addition to teaching and its concomitant demands, I’ve been getting busy with developing a learning management system (LMS) for the modern languages department. It’s based on Moodle, one of the most popular LMSs around, and offers almost infinite possibilities of combining different learning modules to make flexible, interactive and collaborative courses. I’ve got most of my colleagues signed up and we have a total of 17 courses running wholly or in part on my Moodle site.
It keeps my grey matter ticking over, but other activities have fallen by the way, sadly. I haven’t had time to work on photography, for example, although even without active developing and promoting, I have got another photo published, this time in Jamaica. More later. Class in five minutes. Last of the week.
oof
Say what?!