Grading

Today I discovered that I absolutely hate grading.

It's not what you think, though. I don't mind grading students work; with an 80 minute prep period, 30 minute study hall, 30 minute lunch, and 20 minutes after school - I find that MOST of my grading is done by the time I leave school (that is if I can continue to stay on top of things). This way, students get almost instantaneous response (24 hours).

I like students to know exactly where they stand in the class. A couple semesters ago (as a college student in an education class!) I was surprised by my grade at the end of the semester. This particular teacher hadn't said a word to me all term, there was no daily work, and there were no exams. I thought I had done particularly well in this class, it was an experience tutoring "at risk" readers - this is my passion after all! At the end of the term I discovered that this particular professor had given me a C -- a C! I confronted the professor and asked why and what this grade was based off of. He sighed and said, "Reagan, I just don't think you have the personality of a teacher."

Is your jaw dropped? Because mine sure was.

I then may have even mentioned to the professor that I thought it was unfair as basically the first thing they teach us in education classes is that students should never have to guess how they are doing in a class. I've gotten past that and moved on (obviously). But I'll never forget what it was like to have no idea what my grade was.

Moving on.

I've been keeping grades for my two classes (British Literature) in two separate Excel documents. I update them when students hand in work and I've been really good about double checking everything. I have a manila folder marked "Grade" for the assignments I need to finish grading at home (but like I said, I never have more than a few assignments in there at the end of the day). I've been feeling pretty comfortable with my system ... until today.

Today I entered the grades into the computer. Parents and students can check their grades online. All of a sudden I started second guessing myself and worrying about who turned what in. Because I have yet to have everyone show up for class (and have barely surpassed having everyone show up for speech) I have found that I'm constantly "catching people up" on what they missed. This is exhausting!

But ... the grades had to be entered.

I'm disappointed in my students' grades. Everything's been pretty easy - do it and you get the points. I want my students to succeed, but the only way to do more for them at this point is to do the work for them! I haven't had anything with heavy points yet - 15, 27, and 30 - and like I said, it's all been pretty straight forward.

But...I will trudge through this grading process (and hopefully get used to it!). Also, I think I need to remain confident in my system. I check everything twice and I tell the students weekly what they are missing and no one has said - "I turned that in!"

I can't think of a sufficient ending for this post. This will have to suffice. Don't grade me on it!