Today was the day to finish grading student work since term grades need to be finalized tomorrow. By noon. Of course, a noon deadline for teachers teaching all day isn’t really practical. Unless you have a planning block first thing in the morning. Which I do not. So I need to have it all together and ready to send to the higher powers that be, the office goddesses, before the kids come strolling in.
I am typically a hot emotional mess when it comes to getting grades in. They are my least favorite thing about teaching, hands down. But despite my lock of love for the ABCs of grading, I’m generally good under pressure and have an apparent affinity for deadlines that I run into hard, sweat flying. So today, after coming to terms with what had to be done, I was on track to slide into home, confident all grades could get done by the end of a long day if I worked all evening. I only had about thirty more pieces of student writing to review.
Then something flew into my eye, sending me to the eye doctor after school, where he dilated my eyes, diagnosed a scratched cornea and told me I had the night off from grading.
Ah, the naivety of the uninitiated. There is no night off! There’s just a long panicked wait for vision to be restored while eating Ben & Jerry’s and listening to President Biden address the nation on the anniversary of the initial COVID lock down.
And so here I sit. Holding my computer as far from my face as I can, the background dimmed as much as possible, slicing away.
Grades are due tomorrow, but this slice needs to be in tonight!
I am typically a hot emotional mess when it comes to getting grades in. They are my least favorite thing about teaching, hands down. But despite my lock of love for the ABCs of grading, I’m generally good under pressure and have an apparent affinity for deadlines that I run into hard, sweat flying. So today, after coming to terms with what had to be done, I was on track to slide into home, confident all grades could get done by the end of a long day if I worked all evening. I only had about thirty more pieces of student writing to review.
Then something flew into my eye, sending me to the eye doctor after school, where he dilated my eyes, diagnosed a scratched cornea and told me I had the night off from grading.
Ah, the naivety of the uninitiated. There is no night off! There’s just a long panicked wait for vision to be restored while eating Ben & Jerry’s and listening to President Biden address the nation on the anniversary of the initial COVID lock down.
And so here I sit. Holding my computer as far from my face as I can, the background dimmed as much as possible, slicing away.
Grades are due tomorrow, but this slice needs to be in tonight!
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