Dinner will be finished in a few minutes, and then I will begin my exciting evening of studying for my midterm exam. If I were super-ambitious, I would move on to grading to the massive amount of papers I've required my students to write over the course of this semester.
Those papers leave me sighing and thinking: there have to be others ways to get students to process information and learn writing skills without requiring an actual paper. I already know I'm going to have to revamp for next year so I'm not so behind; however, I also feel like I've lost certain aspects of my creativity.
A recent conference did a bit to renew some of that creativity, but I still feel like there has to be a way to require certain skills of a student while avoiding a crazy grading load.
Other teachers feel this way?
I recently ordered the book Teach Like a Champion after several recommendations. I'm hoping the suggestions will help me rework the lesson plans in classroom so I can reach goals without becoming completely overwhelmed.
Right now, I have two sets of papers for English II (150 papers total), two sets of papers for English III (50 papers total) and two sets of papers for English I (40 papers). Total, that's about 500 pages of reading and correcting. And that doesn't even include the tests and worksheets.
Please don't think I'm complaining. I love my job. It's pretty fantastic overall. But my ambition in teaching often takes over my better judgment regarding what I can accomplish in a day. So here we are.
Do you have certain expectations of your students? What about teachers? Do you expect them to work in certain timelines? Or are you willing to grant leeway when you know that person really is working to educate your child?
2 comments:
My expectations of myself are much too high, and way out of balance with my expectations of my littles. I don't push them too hard because I want them to embrace the subjects they love and be wooed into loving the ones they don't yet. It's a fine balance, and as a homeschool mom, I am always learning what is too much and what is not enough.
I wish at this piont in my life that I had gotten a teaching degree. I think it would really help me to do what I'm doing now verses my HR degree... which I don't know how to apply to this current position :)
I am totally feeling your pain. I just finished grading numerous papers for four different classes. I didn't WANT to count how many were in the stack. I still have one class to go, but those papers will have to wait until tomorrow. I've been at it since I got home around 4 pm. Not to mention the grading I tried to accomplish at school today.
I still have 132 research papers to tackle. Most are 3-5 pages in length plus their works cited, notes, outline, and rough draft.
I also wish there was another way to teach the skills of writing and critical thinking without overloading myself with grading. I'll take any and all suggestions.
Maybe we would feel better if we graded at the same time of day. Kind of like grading buddies. HA!
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