A reckoning

Today, I exhume myself from the mounds of paper that my kids have inundated me with. Actually, I was first. I assigned it, they did it, and now I can't see over the piles of papers to correct.

I always have good intensions. "This is the assignment I'll grade the day it comes in, record it in the gradebook and get it back to the kids." That would be the best practice. It saves me from the piles, but more importantly, the students get the feedback they need in the context of the moment rather than weeks later.

Instead, my day will be spent deciding which assignments to count toward their report card, spending time correcting and giving feedback (the later always suffering when I've put my back against the wall), recording in the gradebook with miniscule writing, filing the assignment for giving back or recycling, and knowing all the while that this is the cycle.

If sounds an awful lot like doing the laundry.

It's the part I like least about teaching.

The reckoning comes in a couple of forms. One, I'll realize just how little many of my kids know or are able to do. One of the best reasons to get on this grading is so I can rescue those kids before all they end up with is an elementary school education. I keep telling myself that, but for some reason it doesn't help motivate me. How horrible of me. The other reckoning will be for some of my knuckleheads that go against the grain and/or don't turn in anything. Their report card, and the subsequent conference will show how little effort they put out. Probably not enough to motivate them toward better behavior and a desire to do more, and better, work. How horrible for them.

And here I am, avoiding it all, as always, by spending the last 45 minutes checking email, reading other blogs, and posting this.

It's grading day. Can't you tell.