180 days as a teacher

I have very little interaction with my co-workers. Nature of the job (some would say "nature of the beast!) is such that between running from one class to another, there is little time for chit-chat and socializing with the other teachers.

However, on Thursdays, I teach only 6 out of the 7 periods and my free time is right in the middle of the day - thus giving me a whole period to get ahead (OK, OK, in my case, it's really catching up) on all the correction that needs to be done.

Because let it be known to all those that don't know anything about owning a dog: you feed the dog, it poops and you have to pick it up and dispose of it(the poop, not the dog!).

Well, students generate tests, quizzes, lab reports, exams, and all sort of other things that need to be picked-up by the teacher and corrected. First semester is done on the 31st, and the girls begged for more chances to bring their biology marks up. So, I have them writing 3 quizzes between now and then.

This translates into 306 quizzes to correct, grade and enter into the little computer program that is used to generate their report card. This means A LOT of time spent with the red pen, and at some point, everyone reaches their breaking point where "NO MORE CORRECTION" should be the law, not just something utopic teachers think about when they come up for air.

And so today, I ended up chatting with another teacher, a real teacher, one who has both a teaching degree AND 10 years experience (and an excellent rating on that website where students rate their teachers). I spent close to 40 minutes shooting the breeze (even though we were technically inside the school) and I happened to sigh about the upcoming correction marathon when the following exchange occured:

Her: "Are you telling me that you are going to correct all those quizzes yourself?"

Me: "Are you telling me these tests can be graded WITHOUT my intervention? No wonder they usually hire REAL teachers with degrees to do this... All this time, I've been using a red pen and my brains... It's about time I start using the robots!!! Where do you keep them?"

Her: "It would be INSANE to correct everything yourself. All you need to do is have the students correct them."

Puzzled look on my face...

Then she gently explained that they take someone else's copy, sign their name, and correct using a green pen. The teacher can spotcheck copies randomly (which is not really random since you target the ones most likely to cheat)- since I know who corrected who's test, there can be retribution if it isn't done properly. It takes about 10-15 minutes of your class time, but what a timesaver for me at home afterwards!!!

And so today appeared the light at the end of the tunnel - and to celebrate, I'm about to go enjoy a little Thursday night TV. Not that there's anything wrong with that...