Trying this new system of grading where I give each of my students a slip of paper at the beginning of the week to track their homework and classwork for the week... So instead of entering one grade for each assignment, they just have a week grade, and they are responsible for keeping track of their work for the whole week. (E.g., if the paper gets lost they get a zero for the week, if they forget to show me their homework then sucks for them, etc.) As I reflect and consider continuously increasing effectiveness, I realize that I have more sympathy than I thought for my helplessly disorganized students; alas, the inevitably unending number of absences and other excuses that would warrant forgetting homework or the grading slip find me in a much greater morass of stress and time suck on this Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday than I might have anticipated. **Words in bold may or may not be my own subtle SLASH here unelaborated version of irony.
Tip: When cost-benefit analyzing the merits of giving a test AND a quiz on Fridays, while in class stress-levels may be temporarily lowered, please do not underestimate the hours of necessary clarity of mind needed to grade and record grades for said tests and quizzes.
Social Studies Test Highlight for interested parties...
(Instructions are to choose five terms from a list of eight to define in a complete sentence.)
"State of the Union address: The president sent the papers to the State of the Union address."
Thanks, Brenda.
I thought you weren't going to blog about teaching.
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