Comment Elsewhere: Grading Season

In a PH Open Thread I wrote:

It's the calm before the storm. For the next three days, my students will be working furiously while I knock about answering emails and contemplating my career. Then, for the next week, I will be grading vociferously while they study frantically; then, for a half-week or so, I will be grinding through the grading while they toddle off home, free from academic labor until mid-January. I am scheduled to leave for home mere hours after my final grades are due, so I don't even get the privilege of collapse, nor even my traditional post-grading beer (until all the driving's done, anyway). Then I get to spend the break, when not making merry with family, prepping for class, catching up on reading and -- gasp! -- writing, and figuring out how to cast my academic adventures this year in my Annual Report. The start of next semester will be something of a relief....