2002-10-16
The optimism of animals helps my mood, posted at 11:06 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com One reason I love living with animals and will never live for an extended period of time again without having pets is because they're just so damned optimistic. Both Holden and Tobey look into my eyes with all the hope in the world, emitting enthusiasm and love for life that seems to betray their simple existence of sitting around all day while I'm at work and hanging out with us at night. They're always so hopeful. Hopeful that I'll pat their head or go for a walk or feed them. They love living. They're always happy to see me. I come in from work, and Holden wakes from his slumber in his seemingly constant state of contentment, wagging his tail incessantly and greeting me with licks and sniffs. Even though Holden has never been much of a morning dog (how many dogs do you need to nudge to wake up in the morning?), he always wakes up in a good mood. Tobey waits off to the side a little bit, plaintively meowing until I'm done with Holden, waiting for the scratch on his head. The end of his collar is frayed badly, and it looks like a tassle on a graduation cap. He looks dorky but quite dashing, if I must say so myself. I walk down the hallway through the den and into the kitchen, and the animals gallop in front of me. Tobey is hoping that I'll sit down so he can jump in my lap and purr, while Holden waits by the door so he can pee outside. The process repeats itself every day, and it's one of the things that keeps me going when I have a week like this one - a week in which I'm working so hard that I can barely remember what a good night of sleep feels like or what color my desk looks like beneath the stacks of paper at school.Oh yeah. My kids' foreshadowing essays are awful. The new school district rule this year is that 70 is the lowest grade a kid can get and still pass. I'm not supposed to adjust my grading at all because of this. The class average on the essays that I've graded so far is 71. Some kids' essays are so horrible that they're getting scores like 47 and 54. It makes me feel awful that these kids' writing skills are so far beneath other kids at their level. But they didn't come in for help or visit the writing center - what am I supposed to do? I haven't even had an "A" yet - highest score is an 87. And I taught the hell out of that essay. I need to come up with a revision assignment that really asks them to look at what they wrote, how they can make it better, and to reflect on why they turned in a piece of shit to me.
Did I mention they average 17 minutes apiece to grade and that I have 90 students? Yup, add up the time. That's why teachers are underpaid. Particularly English teachers. In a perfect world, English teachers who must grade tons of essays would be graded more than a physical education teacher or a math teacher - in which the grading entails "correct" or "incorrect." If I'm going to do a good job on grading, it's with complex rubrics and lots of detailed comments that are both "nice" but meaningful.
On top of it all, Ed was crappy tonight - the worst episode ever. Full of plot holes and more annoying behavior by Carol Vessey. I did experience a bit of a return to form with The West Wing, though. It was quite good. I graded all through both shows. I grade papers for a living.
I'm going out today for Happy Hour after school.