I hate grading

One of the least satisfying jobs in teaching is grading papers. I admit that sometimes I do enjoy reading what students have written, but I hate attaching a grade to it most of them and feeling the pressure to get assignments graded in a reasonable amount of time. Even with having time to grade 7th period every day, I’m still way behind. Of course I’m blogging instead of grading papers like I should be.

I got my homework for this week done. I was told that for this class, we would spend a minimum of 6 hours per week doing assignments. I find that to be an exaggeration. If I were really doing all the readings, it might be 3 or 4 hours. My other class has taken up more time simply because it takes longer for me to write essays. I have a midterm coming up and I have to read 30 articles (in advance) for it as it is a timed test that must be completed in one sitting no more than 4 hours.

So in other interesting news – I ran into Matthew today. I had to go to the administration building (where he works) for my training today and I guess he was coming back from lunch to his office and I was headed to the lab and we met in the hallway. He acted very nonchalant as though nothing was going on. He asked me how I was doing and I said “fine.” I asked him how he was and he just waved his hand as though saying “just ok, not great.” He asked why I was there and I told him I had ELA training. And that was it. He headed to his office and I headed to the lab. I don’t know if he is just oblivious, but I couldn’t believe that was it. Could it be that he has no clue that his actions have been very irritating?

I made some chili (without beans) tonight and was not very impressed with it. It lacked flavor and was rather bland. I usually like to eat my chili with white rice, but I ended up giving most of my bowl to the dogs. I enjoyed the ice cream I had for dessert much more.

I guess I’ve put off grading long enough. I need to at least get 4th period’s letters read.