Transcription Junction

Just had to transcribe a 45 minute interview. Of course, I searched "guidelines for transcribing an interview" online and found, much to my dismay, that for every hour of recorded interview, you should be prepared for 4-6 hours of transcription.

I started this assignment on Sunday for an hour. That's all I could take. Worked on it today for an hour and a half, and another hour later. So, the timing is just about right.

It was one of the most tedious tasks ever. I felt like some kind of secretarial robot. It wasn't a hard task, per say. It didn't require intelligence or anything. It was just incredibly tedious and required patience.

I'm so nerdy, the next time I write a paper for class, I'm sure I will think something along the lines of, "This is so freeing. Not having to transcribe and having the ability to be more creative with my wording..."

And by the way...can it snow again? Screw spring coming early. Next vacation isn't until April 22nd and I need a day or two off before then. The DVDs are piling up on my nightstand: La Vie En Rose, From Here to Eternity, Just a Kiss, Chisholm '72, Eastern Promises, Blind Dating, Ira and Abby....Also would love to read something that has no mention of informal reading assessments, graphic organizers, or Fry readability stats...

Brainmush

Yikes. Strange things are a'-brewin' in my mind. I have not gotten to sleep for the past few nights until after 12. I drive home from work and pieces of litter in the roadway suddenly "come to life" and I somehow mistake them for small animals.

I feel overwhelmed with work lately. Am giving out open-ended response assignments and guiding students through them, yet they seem to be making the same errors over and over. I feel like they disregard my comments. It is incredibly irritating. When I sit down and grade a batch of papers, I feel like it is a waste of time.

Am completing tutoring sessions for a grad school class and have no idea if I am tutoring well. Yesterday and today were the first two sessions. I have just been doing assessments, but now I don't know what to do with all of that information. I just feel frustrated, in general.