Wish You Were Here

Monday, June 19, 2006

I'm flippin' done!!

Oh, I NEVER thought this moment would come...but I'm finally finished grading all of the crap that my students have been turning in all semester! How many times do I have to write..."sloppy"...."write neater"..."I cannot grade what I cannot read"...(and my personal favorite) "Are you kidding me?!" :) It's a good thing that middle school students react best to sarcasm because that's all I can muster at this point.

I know the rest of you are probably thinking that I need to shut up since I'll be off work after Thursday...but really, when you add up all of the hours during the week, weekends, and holidays that I spend grading...well, I'm sure it adds up to a full year. I grade usually anywhere between 6-9 hours each day of the weekend...and around 4-6 hours a day AFTER work. My summer project is to find a way to eliminate grading altogether. I have a few ideas that I need to work on...but don't worry, once I figure it out, I'll let my fellow teachers of the group in on my secret!

I don't think that I would have gotten through this semester if it weren't for my friends Mr. Goose and Madame Schwepps. :) They keep me sane.

I'm done venting.

posted by J-Cat @ 11:17 PM  

6 Comments:

  • At 10:59 AM, June 20, 2006, Blogger Random Talegan said…

    C Money -

    It could be worse -- you could have had me as a student. Then you would have had to write comments like:

    "Is this even English?"

    "Are you a chicken, 'cause there's a lot of scratch on these pages."

    "Do you write with your feet, lame-ass?"

    "Are you special, window-licker?"

    "Teacher drinks because you cannot write like a being with opposable thumbs."

    etc., etc.

    Congrats to all the teachers in the group who are done for the summer!!

    C. Diddy

     

  • At 6:11 PM, June 20, 2006, Blogger Mrs. Switzer said…

    Ah yes... the days of grading papers.... Although I don't do much of that in theatre, I sometimes miss the joy of being home at a reasonable hour and being able to spend weekends with my husband, rather than my students... but I guess it's a trade-off. I don't have to grade papers, except when I am stupid enough to assign essays like "analyze Hamlet in terms of Aristotle's Poetics to determine if it is a well-made tragedy." Yes... I am just dumb enough to do it on occasion.

    congrats on being done!!!!

     

  • At 7:59 PM, June 20, 2006, Blogger Mr. Switzer said…

    my grading policy for mundane work is "Neat and Complete" gets full credit. That leaves me more time to work on the more important homework assignments/essays for grading. I know some teachers who try to do more peer grading for essay type work. I think that is generally a cop-out though, and it gives the kids poor feedback. Just go to a test-only grading plan - you know - standards and testing are in vogue. good luck with eliminating grading

     

  • At 9:57 PM, June 21, 2006, Blogger Maureen said…

    Dave doesn mostly 10 question tests. But then again he is teaching bone head science to idiots who leave half the answer blank. Oh the easier to grade.

     

  • At 11:13 AM, June 23, 2006, Blogger Sjonster said…

    What ever happened to the scan tests that require a #2 pencil? I'm all about automation.

     

  • At 3:19 PM, June 23, 2006, Blogger J-Cat said…

    I have students who complete a 33 question DISTRICT BENCHMARK exam in five minutes. So, yeah, bone-head is the perfect term. I guess it's the idealist in me who wants the students to do their very best and I would like to grade something that is worth my time and effort. But it's all behind me now...they are someone else's problem...

     

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