Thursday, November 15, 2007

Grading, Grading, Grading!!!

It's been a while, and I apologize. I've been under a pile of papers. Grades are due tomorrow, and every year I vow to keep up with the enormous amount of paperwork that I amass, and every year I am racing to the finish line. No one goes into teaching because they love grading, but some have a really good system of keeping up with it. I am not one of those people. (If you are, and have any helpful time management tricks for me, please let me know. I really could use all the help I could get.) So I finally finished most everything that I needed to do this afternoon. I still need to put comments on the report cards. My students seem to fall into 3 categories. The first is the brilliant ones. They probably could do everything with just the book. I am there for entertainment purposes. Every year I have about 10 - 15 of these. These are the kids who challenge my mind. Then I have the majority, who are doing fine. If they study they get A's, if they don't they get B's and C's. I was one of these kids - and finally is the bottom of the barrel group. They either don't get it, or don't care. They keep me challenged as a teacher and I enjoy these kids a lot. I love helping them, and seeing their grades rise. Over the years I have realized that there are some who I'm not going to reach, and though that is tough, I don't take it personally any more.
Needless to say there isn't much to report on the knitting front. I have decided to buy many more Christmas gifts then I originally thought. I was getting frustrated not having the time to knit for myself. So I finished a few gifts, and all of the rest of my family will get lovely things from the store. I think all will be happy. (This whole statement is purposely vague, because I believe I have a friendly lurker who should not have any information!)
If any one knows Mike Lowell, tell him he should come back to Boston!

P2K

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