Well, here I am sitting in my office up at UNI waiting for students to turn in their portfolios. Me, the diligent teacher, has been grading some as they slowly come it, but now my poor brain is feeling fried and I can go on no longer. I've graded 8, some of which had only minimal revisions, but I felt pretty good about those 8 until the other 41 started making their way into my office and on my bookshelves, making my small grading accomplishment seem extra small indeed.
Because it's been over a year since I officially taught a first-year composition course, I'd forgotten just how daunting the task of grading so many portfolios with so many revisions could be. Why does it seem like it took no time at all to grade those English 101 portfolios back at ISU a mere 4-5 years ago? I seem to remember getting through them so fast that I was able to return them to students during finals week (within days of them submitting them). I was often one of the faster ones among the other teachers, getting them graded and returned well before finals week was even over.
And as I think back on this, I begin to wonder if this experience is at all similar to the childbirth process I hear my friends talk about. Indulge me for a moment as I try to make a comparison. I've heard stories from mothers who agonized during the labor and delivery process only to claim that they "forgot" the experience and later wanted to have more children because of the joy of the experience, etc. etc. Have I in turn "forgotten" the pain that accompanies portfolio grading simply because I wanted to get back into teaching and leave my job this summer? Am I now all of a sudden starting to remember what the process was really like?
That said, I'm terribly behind in posting to this blog, but soon I will have some pictures to post from my fabulous dinner with Lynsey in Cedar Rapids as well as some church and flower pictures from the wedding planning. It's been a busy couple of weeks to say the least.
Ken and I had our engagement pictures taken last weekend and I just picked up those proofs today. I'm happy to report that there are some good candidates and so I think we'll have a fairly easy decision. Our Christmas cards are finally out too after weeks of struggling to get people's addresses and realizing that the postage required would cost me an additional $0.17 per card. Sigh. Nothing's easy these days.
Our dishwasher also pooped out on us last week, but I'm happy to report that we have a lovely new one in our kitchen ready to be run and we just had soft water installed today to make our usage easier. Talk about living in the lap of luxury! Cable TV, a new dishwasher, AND soft water! We're definitely movin' on up, Weezie. Oh, and I also had to take a final exam for my "teacher course" at work. Fingers crossed that I passed. Of course, add all to this the ice storm we had on Monday night, and it's been a busy week!
Tonight, at 6:00 p.m. sharp, I'm leaving my office with a box of portfolios for the weekend and am off to watch little Audra's first Christmas program. She's starring as an Angel. My camera's ready to capture the moment. Things like this make me happy to be close to home.
2 comments:
Got your X-mas card, Marcy. But haven't read it yet. By the way, Jen and I have a new address:
622 Roosevelt Ct
Sycamore IL 60178
Good luck on the grading. I feel your pain. I have about 8portfolios left that I'm putting off till Monday. They're for a Writing and Rhetoric II class, which features one long essay and smaller subassignments. The problem is that a lot of students handed in short first drafts, and so now I'm reading a lot of new text for the first time.
But one more day to break. Yay!
Thanks for the new address, Brad! I think I got your old one from a Killarney's blog a while ago. I've added your new one to the list.
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