Monday, November 25, 2013

Concerto for Florist and Orchestra?

Hello people. While grading (when am I not totally behind on grading these days?!?!) today I was looking for something appropriate for keeping me awake and focused. Music with words is a terrible choice for that, and sometimes Philip Glass can beautifully lull me to sleep --- I don't mean that in a bad way; it is wonderful and soothing. But that makes it dangerous for keeping awake while focused.

After listening to a nice cello concerto performed by the La Jolla Orchestra, I of course looked at what other options Youtube would give me. Concerto for ...Florist? That has to be a typo, right? Nope.




I heartily approve of whimsy and absurdism in my art; it was nice; I liked it. Why not incorporate visual arts with the performance of modern classical music? Why not reimagine Forest Management and Floristry as visual performance arts? I will have to listen again to see if the music stands on its own, though, because I felt, like some of the commenters, that the concept was a little "thin" on watching. That said, I think I liked the floral arrangements of the third movement best.

Of course, I only got some of my grading done, because I felt obligated to watch whenever I saw the florist moving about. So now I must go back to some slightly more traditional music and more traditional grading. Alas.

Side note for my own sanity: if you were to have been keeping up on handing the essays back but doing a terrible job of giving back the homework on time, would you bother commenting on the homework when you finally got around to it? Or would you just record grades and hand them back? Or not hand the hw back at all? I have been having trouble juggling everything this semester. I am soooo glad I am not doing job market stuff too this semester!

In conclusion: orange Gerbera daisy in C minor.

2 comments:

Contingent Cassandra said...

I'd say grades only, hand back, offer to answer any questions. Few if any will want comments, and no one can complain that you didn't hand back work/they didn't know their grade.

Anonymous said...

I teach history, so this may not work for you, but it gets the job done for me: post a rubric, and then when you grade, comment on mechanics and content, rather than fix every little bit.

This semester, I'm teaching a seminar and I am astounded at what senior students have handed in as not-quite-finished-but-nearly-there drafts. I've got a stack in front of me and I'm fixing every little bit, so I deeply sympathize with you this week.