Mary Oliver

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?"









Monday, April 11, 2016

Teaching

The past two weeks have been extra stressful, mainly due to being sick the past two weekends, I think. The grading period for this term ends on Wednesday and we are supposed to have grades in by 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, which is crazy. I brought a ton of papers home for the past two weekends but didn't grade anything; I tried to stay after a few days to catch up but still never made it through them all and meanwhile they just kept piling up. I had two migraines last week and even though I felt like I was working as hard as I could, I couldn't fall asleep last night because of worrying about how I would get everything done on time. After midnight, I finally decided to put in for a substitute for 3rd and 4th block today so I could devote a significant block of time to grading. Yes, I actually took leave from work in order to work. Crazy, right? So I left school at noon, and went to a coffee shop to grade. It took me over three hours, and then I drove to the library so I could enter the grades into the computer. I finished at 4:00 p.m., and I feel as if a weight has been lifted off my chest.

The challenge I now have is to figure out how to prevent this situation from happening again. I need to make some changes so that I can complete the year with significantly less stress. I know one thing I need to do is to reduce the number of assignments I grade. I also think it will help me to plan out the rest of the year, in terms of making more detailed lessons. I tend to plan as I go, i.e., in response to what I think the students need, but with three separate preps, this is adding stress to me that I can no longer afford to bear. I love the freedom I have to choose what I want to teach, but I think it's become necessary to narrow it down a bit more. I'm not sure if it's the difference between teaching English versus science, or if it's because of the three preps, but I need to make things a little easier on myself. Using my leave to work is not an acceptable practice, and I don't want to do it again.

Boring post, but here is a photo of the beautiful library I visited; it's only a year old and they did a fabulous job incorporating the old with the new and reflecting our city.

Not too shabby, is it? And the inside is as beautiful as the outside. I had some photos from the grand opening last April, but couldn't find them, so next time I visit, I'll take some more. As a native of Norfolk, I'm pretty proud of it. Thanks for reading.

 

2 comments:

  1. I totally understand. The end of the term is hard enough without migraines. My teachers "end" each quarter early so they have time to grade. Definitely grade fewer things. Three preps is pretty insane.

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  2. Not boring at all, you are overwhelmed and we ant to hear about it. Plus those migraines did not help, they mess up your brains o you can't even think. Take care of yourself Rose,
    Meredith

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