Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004
Grading fool, posted at 8:36 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com My grade verification forms were due at 9pm tonight. It's 8:36, and I've ditched school to do them at home. After working all day on them, in between doing a little bit of teaching here and there, they're still not done. I don't know if I've ever left them this long, but I've certainly missed my deadline and hope the jovial guy who runs the forms through the machine is just as jovial when I hand them in first thing tomorrow morning instead of last thing tonight. This is a function of being behind in the first place, then my computer busted (I will never, ever get a laptop computer. They're too damn fragile. It was the pin in the back of the computer that busted, and now my computer is basically unusuable unless I switch out batteries with colleagues, which is annoying) so I'm doing all my grades by hand, then I had my Outward Bound trip and couldn't do any work, and now I'm back and I'm doing things like having fun happy hour nights out instead of grading. Plus, I have 170 students, which is my biggest student load yet, and, honestly, I just can't keep up very well.It would be really easy to just estimate my grades. I wouldn't get "caught" and no one would know except for me. But I have these details grade forms I'm filling out (by hand) for all the kids, and I just really want the grades to be something meaningful, so the kids can really get a sense of where their weaknesses lie and what their strengths are. My old supervisor helped me see grades in a new way (basically, a 70 means a student is 70% of the way to where they need to be), and I strive to do what she taught me to do with them. Plus, at this point, it just too late to fake it. These Honors kids compare notes between classes and keep me on my toes. "What?!? Your class got grade reports? Ours didn't!"
I'm toying around with the idea of just buying a decent computer for work, to keep at my desk there. It would solve a lot of headaches, I think. I wouldn't be able to afford it for a while, though.
Tonight, on top of my grades being due, was the Open House for the school. On this night, prospective students and their parents come and tour the school, and us teachers are supposed to give little presentations to them. It was actually a nice break from the stacks of Baldwin passage analyses I've been slugging through. It was borderline inspiring to talk to these eighth grade kids who are thinking of coming to the school, because they're all so shy and quiet and nervous. Plus, I really love talking up our school, and have been feeling a lot of love for it lately. The longer I'm there, the more I know it is the reason I stay in Baltimore. It's not just because the teaching market is so shitty in Michigan and there aren't really any good urban schools. It's because I just really like it here, love the department, the curriculum, the coaching job.
It sort of feels like no one else in the building is really showing love for the school, though. In previous years, posters adorned the school with accomplishments, and our former principal, who I had some issues with, would say things like, "We make the American Dream work here," and it was totally plausible and motivating to me and, I think, important for the kids to hear. It's so important to me that I've assigned the kids to come up with a positive epithet for our school when they give their mythology presentations over the next several weeks. They must being their presentation with the lines, "Hello, my name is (blank) and I'm a 9th grade student at (blank), (insert epithet)." To offset any groaning (although none did), I told them little stories about how I thought I was going to be laid off last year, and how I researched around for successful urban public schools, and how there are hardly any in the entire nation that do the things our school does. I hear rumors about a mass exodus of kids after this year because of uncertainty, and I hope it doesn't happen because, with all the uncertainty (a euphemism if there ever was one) there is, I still feel like amazing things happen here.
I'm exhausted and have a ton to do in the next forty-eight hours in preparation for finishing up grades, doing my pre-observation lesson, and preparing for my house concert on Friday (the house is a total and utter pit).
By the way, I received this e-mail in my inbox today. I think I've just been asked out:
I met you last night at Lulu's and was really exctied about the prospect of my first house concert, however, I have to go to Philly to visit a friend this weekend and won't be able to make it. Hopefully I will catch up with you at the next one (any plans for one yet?) or sometime sooner if you are up for getting together.
Take care-
Christine (red sweater dorky glasses)
That's bound to cheer a guy up.
Although, to be honest, I was much more excited by the messages in my inbox proclaiming the proclaiming the signing of Troy Percival by the Tigers. Let's go get Adrian Beltre and Matt Clement and I can already taste the pennant.