School Induced Comma

My grades were due yesterday morning (which is why there is a lack of post from the last couple of days) and of course nothing went as planned.

First, I got in at 5:30am to make copies and input grades for one last class. I print off everything, start the copier, and then sit down to log onto Turnitin.com only to discover that our IT department was experimenting with a filter and I needed an admin password to access the site.

Grades were due at 7:40am. The filter wasn't taken off until 7:45am.

Then, during my first planning period, I was sidetracked with an issue in guidance for the entire period preventing me from actually getting my grades done. I didn't have a free moment until lunch so I had to give up my lunch period to grade.

After finally getting my grades in, I had to run down to the athletic department to drop off paperwork so I could get paid for the work I did for them over the weekend which took away the five minute window I had to eat.

During the actual teaching period, I introduced the sophomore research project to my sophomores. Every sophomore has to do it but I was the first teacher to introduce it meaning I was a big fat meany. My seniors were bouncing off the wall and my freshmen couldn't focus to save their lives. I thought I was out of the woods with last period planning but I ended up subbing during that period.

I rarely leave school as soon as I'm allowed to but yesterday I left the moment the clock told me my contract hours were up.

I proceeded to go for a mile and a half walk to clear my head and then I put my head down on the pillow and was asleep by 7pm and was that way until 6am this morning. Basically a school induced comma.

I do not share this to complain. I share this because when I was first starting out, I felt this way all the time but didn't feel like anyone understood. Therefore, I share this so you can not feel alone and know that you are not the only teacher that feels crazy every once and a while.

It is okay to sleep for 11 hours sometimes. Sometimes you need it more than you need to grade.

Snow Days Are a Wonderful Wonderful Thing

This is the second snow day coming off of a four day weekend for students and three day weekend for teachers.

I love it.

I have gotten grading done and grad school work done. I have been able to do this without being over tired from teaching all day and I have been able to do it in sweats (I think sweatpants should become part of professional attire but that is another issue).

I have also been able to sleep. I went to bed a reasonable hour last night without completing the grading I needed to because I knew I had the day off. I woke up not stressed about what I had to get done because I knew I had time to do it all.

I really wish teaching could be like this all the time. There are too many mornings I wake up dreading the amount of work I have to do. I don't actually dread the teaching just the grading/planning/meetings. You know, the stuff that prevents me from doing the part of my job that I actually really like.

In my ideal world, teachers would have two work days a month. One would be for all the meetings where they tell us what is going to be on the memo that is going to be placed in our mailboxes later and meetings to make sure everyone is on the same page. The second day would be for grading. Just grading.

That would be my heaven.

Regardless of how much work I get done today, these two snow days have allowed me to relax and rejuvenate. I'll go into work tomorrow refreshed and relaxed. I won't be stressed at all.

Until the weekend since my grades are due on Monday morning but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Actually Enjoying the Grading Process?

I am about to say four words that rarely come out of a teacher's mouth:

I am enjoying grading

Seriously. I am enjoying it. I'm currently grading my sophomores Asian Literature Portfolios. For this assignment, students took five different styles of writing that originated in various places in Asia and wrote their own versions. They not only had to write the pieces but explain what the pieces were and how what they wrote fits into that definition. They also had to dedicate the work to someone and give a short bit about themselves as the author. Not only did they write samples of 5 creative writing style but they also were allowed to make up whatever they wanted about themselves as the author. They could have become a Jedi, the doctor who cured cancer, or even a Time Lord. The sky was the limit as long as they kept their name the same.

I am laughing out loud as I read these. Some of my kids are hilarious and some of the kids who are hilarious are the quiet ones in class. They finally have the space to be the funny person they are without having to embarrass themselves. 

I am smiling at how touching some of the dedications are and how thoughtful the writings are. My students may sometimes appear shallow on the outside, but they have so much happening on the inside that they are afraid to show it. They finally have an outlet to express their feelings.

I even shed a tear at how moving one portfolio was. 

My students have written truly inspiring pieces. Out of my 65 sophomores, only 2 did not turn in the assignment. This is the lowest percentage of "missing" I've had to record. My students took the assignment I created and made it their own. 

They not only showed me that they learned something, but they actually enjoyed doing the learning. 

My teacher senses are getting warm and fuzzy because my students have actually enjoyed writing and learning. When my students enjoy what they do, they produce better work. When my students produce better work, I enjoy grading their work.

Now, if I could only figure out a way for them to enjoy writing essays.....

Resources for Units

As teacher, one of the most frustrating things is finding resources so that you do not have to completely reinvent the wheel. I have spent countless hours searching the internet for various assignments especially when I want to try new things (see my previous post). Although there are some great websites out there like WebEnglishTeacher, it can become very difficult to find resources.

So to help my fellow English teachers, I am starting my own resource page on my blog. I'll be adding to it as I go and I'll publish an update every time I do. Eventually there will be plenty of resources on the units below but for now I'm starting with Things Fall Apart since that is what I'm currently doing with my sophomores.

Eventually you'll be able to find resources on:

Things Fall Apart
The Odyssey
The Iliad
Oedipus the King
Romeo and Juliet
The Aeneid
Taming of the Shrew
Thesis Essay Writing
Using Video in the Classroom


Enjoy!

How to "Relax" While Grading

I am currently the only experienced teacher for two of the three grade levels I teach. Due to this, I get asked a lot of questions about curriculum,  classroom management, and anything else you can think of. I don't mind it at all because it allows me to reflect on my own teaching in a way I never would have before.

I am a third year teacher so I am still fairly new at the whole teaching profession. This year, however, I feel like I have aged ten years since I'm the "experienced" teacher.

Recently,  the biggest question that has been asked of me has been "How do you not lose it while grading exams?"

Our students all have short answer questions where they must answer each question in two paragraphs or more. If you know anything about teaching high school English, you know this can be a very disheartening process due to the utter crap we sometimes get. It becomes very hard not to go crazy.

In the past, I jokingly said "alcohol" to this question. This year, I say it and mean it to the point that I scheduled a "grading party" at the local bar where we sometimes go for after work drinks.

Now, before you jump down my throat,  I'm not advocating being drunk for grading or even having a slight buzz. I'm advocating getting out of the classroom and grading with friends in an atmosphere where you feel relaxed and at ease. You grade better in those conditions.

The four teachers went out and we graded. No, we did not grade as many papers as we would have alone and at school but guess what. At the end of it, we were more relaxed and willing to grade more when we got home then of we had graded alone at school.

Sometimes all it takes is a change of atmosphere to make one of the worst parts of our jobs enjoyable. So the next time you see teachers grading in the bar, don't be offended.  Understand that they need the break from school but can only do so if they grade.

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.

Laughing Instead of Going Crazy

Curiosity of Stephen Patis andPeals Before Swine

It has been a very looooong day at school and my last period planning took forever to get here.

Why was it so long you ask?

Besides the fact that my students seemed to have ingested pounds of sugar, I was grading essays during my spare minutes. The above comic pretty much sums up how I feel after grading some of these essays. Nearly every essay I want to write various comments like Cameron Diaz does in Bad Teacher. If you have never seen that movie, I have put the video of her grading short answers below (language NSFW since she drops the f-bomb once). It pretty much sums up how every teacher feels while grading. The first time I saw that scene I couldn't stop laughing for a good 5 minutes so I missed the next scene and had to rewind.

Basically, the point of this post is to give you some laughs since you're most likely on the verge of losing it and going crazy. Hopefully they help.

(Since I am an English teacher, I will say that I have not created any of these images/videos. If I know the author I will give them credit but some were just circulated on the internet so much that I'm not sure who the original author is)

How to Stay Positive While Grading the Soul Sucking Thing that is Student Essays

Beautiful and cold Sunday in December. Perfect for cuddling on the couch, in front of a fire, and watching football.

What am I doing?

Grading thesis essays.

Grading essays is the hardest part of my job. Okay well, not the hardest in terms of difficultly of doing, because, frankly, it is quite easy to sit there and read the essays since they are written by freshmen. What makes them the hardest is the fact that no matter how long I stand up there in class and tell students how to write a good paper or how many times I allow them to sign up to come see me for help on writing their paper, these papers are still a struggle to grade because they don't listen to what I say or take my offer for help seriously.

That is the most frustrating thing about grading thesis essays. I have been teaching for three years and I still can't get over the frustration that grading essays causes.

In this particular case, I spent 5 days in class teaching them how to write. We wrote a sample essay as a class and I gave my students a step by step guide on how to write a well thought out thesis essay.

Not only did I spend 5 lessons on this, I also was available before and after school for the two weeks students had to write their essays. I had a sign up sheet since they are freshmen and need a little push to have them come talk to teachers.

Only a handful signed up.

The first year I did this, I was full of dreams and expectations that students would come rushing to sign up and follow my directions step by step.

Of course, as do most dreams you have while teaching, these dreams were crushed.

Last year, aka year two, I had the same dreams with the though that "It is a new batch of students and they will surely follow every step."

Yet again, I was wrong.

So when I did it this year, aka year three, I had zero expectations and, if this is even possible, had negative expectations. How am I supposed to stay positive when none of my students take my help?

Then it hit me: The writing process isn't about the paper, it is about the student's attitude. My students hear me but they don't listen. They take the notes but they don't follow them.

Why?

Because they are teenagers. Not just any teenagers, but young teenagers who are navigating the tricky world of new friends, new drama, new feelings, new everything. They are concerned about school but not education. They care about turning in the essay but they don't realize that all those things I have said about paper writing applies to them because they have more important things on their minds.

You and I both know that these things they are concerned with won't be important in 10 years but you try telling that to a teenager.

So, what caused me to come to this startling realization? The freshmen I had in year one are now juniors. They are writing more and more complex papers for English, for history, for science, for every subject they have. More than one has come back to me, their lowly freshmen English teacher, and have asked me to look at their essay. When I ask them why me and not their current teacher, they reply with something along the lines of:

"I just remember you taking the time to teach me how to write. I didn't listen because I was a freshmen and didn't believe you when you said that I would need to know this later. I need your help now. Hopefully you're willing to help me."

(Granted, it isn't as eloquent as that usually but you get the gist.)

The students that crushed my dreams are now restoring them. Granted, they are two years late but they finally came through.

That is how I stay positive and keep doing what I have been doing. They aren't ignoring me now because they don't recognize my willingness to help; they have put the information in their brain but it just hasn't processed yet because other things are taking up the room.

I can't give up just because I haven't helped them now. I have to stay positive because they will eventually grow as a person and realize that I have been trying to help them all along, even if it is two years later.

That is how I stay positive will grading these essays which is exactly what I am going to continue to do now as I watch football out of the corner of my eye.