Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Avoiding the Grading Induced Downing Feeling

Grading is the thing that causes all teachers to want to rip their hair out. Not only does it depress you but it also takes up a good chunk of your time. It is even worse the night before grades are do because it seems like you haven't graded anything all quarter.

Teachers don't avoid grading because they are lazy; they avoid it because they are so tired by the time they have a moment to grade, they want to de-stress.

I am not above this feeling. There are many nights I come home and don't do squat because I'm that worn out. However, I have finally figured out a system for avoiding this drowning feeling (most of the time).

Every teacher has a to-do list. The key is though to have two lists. One list is you're over all to do list; all the things you have to plan, grade, etc. This is the list most people have. The key is to add the second list which I call my "Must-Do" list.  What makes this list special is that I never put more than 10 things on it and everything on this list I have to get done on that day before I leave school. Sometimes the list has mostly small stuff like return emails. Other times it had things such as grade a class worth of papers.

There are some days where I'm done with list by mid day so I start to work on other things and I leave at 3:30. Other days I'm at work until 8pm working on my list. Either way, I feel accomplished at the end of the day and since I'm prioritizing, I don't feel like I'm drowning as often.

This is not the only way to avoid the drowning feeling but it is by far the best thing for me. Hopefully you'll be able to utilize it and stop the feeling from over coming you every week.

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