Grading

I finished my first grading period a few weeks ago and I found I HATE grading. I must say, it was the one thing I need to get better at. That has to be the only part of my education training I didn't get. Somehow I got into an awful habit of collecting papers, and then sitting on them. I wouldn't grade them, I wouldn't return them; they just sat in my bag. So when the deadline for grades to be submitted approached, I panicked. Needless to say, I did not have enough grades and was forced to alter things to be fair (and even then it wasn't fair). My first solution to this problem is to collect less. I have also printed off class rosters/gradebooks. This way when I assign work/homework, I can come by and check if they completed their work instead of collecting it. I will mark on the computerized paper that they did or did not do it, assign points, and then move on. I have grades, but not the paper. This gives me a relief. I have found that it isn't a foolproof fix because I still have collected papers, have done little with them, and the paper I have been recording grades on, I have not put them into the grading program.

The main reason I have yet to put grades into the online grading program is because our administration is making the teachers have a school-wide grading allocations. Meaning a certain percentage of the students' grades go to a specific part. I believe it is something like Participation, Assignments, and Assessments. These are fine catgories for me, I just don't believe in the sub categories. This makes it hard for me to know where to put things when I don't agree that is the category it needs to be under. For example, under this list, homework should go under participation and class work should go under assignments... In my opinion, it should be in homework in assignments and class work in participation. But who am I?

I love my students, I love that I'm a teacher. However, I am finding more and more that there are people around me have their focus out of order. Students should be the goal, what's in the best interest for our students, having them succeed. Other people's goals are to pass the TEST, get the GRADE, and have the perfect IMAGE, when it isn't accurate. It is a constant struggle to not allow their negative thoughts affect the reason I'm a teacher. That is the end of my soapbox.

Last thought: Before the school year begins, make sure you take pictures of your room, the empty walls, blank bulletin boards, unorganized areas, etc. Once your class is what you want it to be, take pictures from all of the same angles to see your improvements. I took the beginning pictures and have yet to take the after. But after looking through the first pictures, I was amazed at all that has changed, how great my class truly looks. I'll take pictures this week and post them here later. So take before and after picture and be amazed at all you have done!

Maybe next time, I won't stay away so long.