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.

 

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