Friday, March 20, 2009

"Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink."

Quarter grades are due this week. That would mean I'm reading. Papers. Student papers.

Oh, how I long to read a novel again...

Can't wait to cut loose the Albatross of paperwork from my neck and rid myself of the curse of grading. At least for one more week, that is.

Guess you will have to wait a few more days to hear about "Multi-cultural Night" and the fascinating diverse make-up of my school...such as the fact that 31% of English Language Learner (ELL) students in my school are Punjabi...

9 comments:

Karen said...

Oh, I remember those days! The best thing about leaving teaching was that I no longer had to spend Saturdays and Sundays reading essays.

Aniket Thakkar said...

'Rime of the ancient mariner' was one of my fav. in school, after 'The Highwayman'. Loved the story 'The Unexpected' too. And then Shakespere and The count of Monte Cristo changed the whole world around. Love those days.

And 31% punjabi?? Bhangra must be on the list of the events then??? lolz

Do post the funniest of answers you come across in the answer sheets... :) :)

Lily said...

Up until a few minutes ago, I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. Is there a subject I could teach that wouldn't require me to grade papers??

P.E....oh wait...I think kids have to take PE tests where they answer questions about the rules of volleyball. Still that would be better than reading page after page of terrible writing. Sorry, that was not helpful.

What am I saying? I'm not qualified to even teach anyone P.E.! Forget about teaching someone how to write!

I do, however, qualify for Food Stamps.

laughingwolf said...

i'm with aniket, would love to see some answers :)

JR's Thumbprints said...

Some of my students get upset when they discover I haven't corrected their school work. "How much time are you doing?" I usually ask, followed by, "What's your hurry?"

Karen said...

Good one, JR!

Karen said...

The worst thing I had to read was student poetry; invariably it was love angst and BAD POETRY! I shied away from writing for years, for fear I'd be as bad!

Jerolyn Bogear said...

Hang on, spring break's comin'. My job is not as demanding, but I'm looking forward to it, too. I so feel for you on the papers. I remember student teaching. Had 125 students and 2 supervising teachers. One was the head of the department and the other 8 months pregnant. They were both glad to turn their classrooms over to me. Jim and I would go to his brother's house for the weekend. They'd be fishing and having fun. I'd be reading papers. Yuck! Maybe that's one of the reasons I've never pursued a public school teaching job;-)

bluesugarpoet said...

Karen - I might just send a pile of papers your way. :) I've actually been thinking about making a "terrible poetry" blog...we could all be contributers and purposely create poems with metaphors that don't work, ridiculous rhyme schemes, and all other types of poetic inappropriateness...


Aniket - I knew you would get that reference. ;)

Lily - yeah, there are lots of teachers that don't grade papers...bad teachers. So if you plan to be a teacher, you'll probably have to grade some papers. :)

Laughing Wolf (and others) - I'll have to start making a list...

JR - funny...and yet...I'm thinking I could use that line with quite a few of my students...

JB - after my weekend of grading, i don't blame you for not pursuing a public teaching career