Grading

Although I’ll be dressed and in my office, I will probably have the same look as this guy all day today. I need to catch up on grading. I love teaching, but I have always loathed grading. For one thing, it takes up a lot of time, and I don’t like giving bad grades, though I think any good teacher would hate giving bad grades I know there are some who get joy out of it, but if students are making bad grades, a lot of that reflects back on how well a teacher is doing their job. 

Also, modern technology like texting, tweeting, etc. has caused many people to write in a modern and often perplexing shorthand, and people get out of the habit of writing complete sentences. An emphasis on teaching writing is not what students are used to anymore. That being said, this is usually an issue with freshman. None of my students are freshmen, and thus are further along in their studies.

It’s also hard to get students into discussions in class or to ask questions. I get that. I was a very shy and not a confident student. I was a good and attentive student, but I was always afraid I’d say something dumb. So, I mostly kept quiet. To make up for this, I have my students write journal entries each week, that I “grade at random,” which translates to, I’ll grade them when I have to. Well, I need to catch up on grading their journals. Usually, it’s mostly pretty interesting because I get to see what my students are thinking about and learning in class.

I should have been grading all weekend, but I’ve had a migraine and kept putting it off. So, I need to get caught up today and turn in midterm grades. Luckily, I will be the only one in the office today and can concentrate on grading.