A plea to HS teachers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't also a teacher who had to grade essays.

On the night my essays were due, and a few successive ones, I made that grading my priority. I took steps to lighten my load of completion grading so my time could be spent on the important stuff. I assigned shorter pieces (not term papers) so that the grading was manageable.

If you folks think grading written work isn't important, you are mistaken. People learn to write by writing and rewriting. Teachers need to be part of that.

At least when I got my MAT, we were taught the importance of high quality assessment and feedback to learning.

Yes, it is drudgery. But that is part of what you are paid to do.

Congrats, you’re arguing a point nobody was making. We didn’t say it isn’t something we have to do or that we don’t do it. Just that for some subjects it cannot be done quickly and done well or that other things aren’t more important. But go on with your ~MAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure many HS teachers are reading here. You might be better off contacting your school principal.

There are plenty of us on here. And 99% of us do our grading, promptly and accurately.

This isn't a plea to "HS teachers" it's to ONE problem teacher. This should be addressed with the administrator, not with this website of random people, who also could be teachers, but the vast majority of us DO our grading and feedback and such promptly.

Note that in a year where she had at minimum 8 teachers, there is ONE teacher you are pointing out. That is 12% OF HER YEAR. or 88% that did their jobs well.

Sorry that you don't like it when parents bash your colleagues, but there are a lot of crappy, lazy and ineffective teachers in our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The USA has some of the worst teachers among wealthy nations, because of the way it portrays education, and the very low standards of every educational college. Don't be surprised, OP. The people who go in for teaching are unfortunately often bottom of the barrel graduates. Makes it really hard for the few excellent teachers to change perceptions about education!

Yes.


People say this country should be more like Finland. Well, Finland recruites teachers from the top 25% of high schools. The US? The bottom 50%. No wonder our education system is failing. Your child's teacher most likely was not a strong student her/him self.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, essays were handed back today — a short exam day. Tomorrow is the last day of school but is 3 hour early release so not much of a day. DD did not do well on the essay and another year of missed opportunities to improve writing. I guess we need to look into and pay for some sort of summer class to improve her writing.

And the other teacher still hasn’t inputted the correct grades. Nothing left to do about it.

So disappointing.

Send an email to the school board.

[Anonymous]

What do you really expect when one teachers has 150+ students and has to spend his/her time doing other BS when he/she should be allowed to grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't also a teacher who had to grade essays.

On the night my essays were due, and a few successive ones, I made that grading my priority. I took steps to lighten my load of completion grading so my time could be spent on the important stuff. I assigned shorter pieces (not term papers) so that the grading was manageable.

If you folks think grading written work isn't important, you are mistaken. People learn to write by writing and rewriting. Teachers need to be part of that.

At least when I got my MAT, we were taught the importance of high quality assessment and feedback to learning.

Yes, it is drudgery. But that is part of what you are paid to do.

Congrats, you’re arguing a point nobody was making. We didn’t say it isn’t something we have to do or that we don’t do it. Just that for some subjects it cannot be done quickly and done well or that other things aren’t more important. But go on with your ~MAT

Listen, I get it. I was never a HS teacher. But I was a teaching assistant (writing) in grad school. I had FAR LESS than a HS teacher has to do. But, I did have to provide high level and instructive grading and feedback to my students on a certain deadline. I only say this to make clear that I'm sympathetic to what you all have to do. I am. But, that is not where it ends.

The kids DO depend on and need those grades and that feedback in a timely manner if they are going to improve. Or if they get a bad grade and need to bring it up. They can't do those things without the benefit of the previous assignments being returned and graded. And they depend on those grades for colleges and other opportunities. And the parents depend on them to hold their kids accountable. That's hard for us and them when they don't have it and are supposed to have it. So, it's not just you and your struggles unfortunately. You are the "captain of the ship", if you will, and when you're not doing things in a timely manner it affects the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't also a teacher who had to grade essays.

On the night my essays were due, and a few successive ones, I made that grading my priority. I took steps to lighten my load of completion grading so my time could be spent on the important stuff. I assigned shorter pieces (not term papers) so that the grading was manageable.

If you folks think grading written work isn't important, you are mistaken. People learn to write by writing and rewriting. Teachers need to be part of that.

At least when I got my MAT, we were taught the importance of high quality assessment and feedback to learning.

Yes, it is drudgery. But that is part of what you are paid to do.

Congrats, you’re arguing a point nobody was making. We didn’t say it isn’t something we have to do or that we don’t do it. Just that for some subjects it cannot be done quickly and done well or that other things aren’t more important. But go on with your ~MAT

Listen, I get it. I was never a HS teacher. But I was a teaching assistant (writing) in grad school. I had FAR LESS than a HS teacher has to do. But, I did have to provide high level and instructive grading and feedback to my students on a certain deadline. I only say this to make clear that I'm sympathetic to what you all have to do. I am. But, that is not where it ends.

The kids DO depend on and need those grades and that feedback in a timely manner if they are going to improve. Or if they get a bad grade and need to bring it up. They can't do those things without the benefit of the previous assignments being returned and graded. And they depend on those grades for colleges and other opportunities. And the parents depend on them to hold their kids accountable. That's hard for us and them when they don't have it and are supposed to have it. So, it's not just you and your struggles unfortunately. You are the "captain of the ship", if you will, and when you're not doing things in a timely manner it affects the rest.

2/3 weeks is timely. Grade books have to be updated MONTHLY. Not daily. Not biweekly. Mine is updated far more frequently but for big pieces you will get them back in 2-3 weeks and regardless of what you think timely is, that is timely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The USA has some of the worst teachers among wealthy nations, because of the way it portrays education, and the very low standards of every educational college. Don't be surprised, OP. The people who go in for teaching are unfortunately often bottom of the barrel graduates. Makes it really hard for the few excellent teachers to change perceptions about education!

Yes.


People say this country should be more like Finland. Well, Finland recruites teachers from the top 25% of high schools. The US? The bottom 50%. No wonder our education system is failing. Your child's teacher most likely was not a strong student her/him self.

You would get better applicants if the US paid teachers like a profession. So many good teachers leave because of the pay. Or worse, never go into the field at all because they literally can’t afford to do the job on the low salary. You want Finland quality education and schools, pay Finland’s salaries and give the same respect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The USA has some of the worst teachers among wealthy nations, because of the way it portrays education, and the very low standards of every educational college. Don't be surprised, OP. The people who go in for teaching are unfortunately often bottom of the barrel graduates. Makes it really hard for the few excellent teachers to change perceptions about education!

Yes.


People say this country should be more like Finland. Well, Finland recruites teachers from the top 25% of high schools. The US? The bottom 50%. No wonder our education system is failing. Your child's teacher most likely was not a strong student her/him self.

Show us the source of this statistic, since you are so instant that it is true.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of teachers phone it in. This is nothing new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't also a teacher who had to grade essays.

On the night my essays were due, and a few successive ones, I made that grading my priority. I took steps to lighten my load of completion grading so my time could be spent on the important stuff. I assigned shorter pieces (not term papers) so that the grading was manageable.

If you folks think grading written work isn't important, you are mistaken. People learn to write by writing and rewriting. Teachers need to be part of that.

At least when I got my MAT, we were taught the importance of high quality assessment and feedback to learning.

Yes, it is drudgery. But that is part of what you are paid to do.

Congrats, you’re arguing a point nobody was making. We didn’t say it isn’t something we have to do or that we don’t do it. Just that for some subjects it cannot be done quickly and done well or that other things aren’t more important. But go on with your ~MAT

Listen, I get it. I was never a HS teacher. But I was a teaching assistant (writing) in grad school. I had FAR LESS than a HS teacher has to do. But, I did have to provide high level and instructive grading and feedback to my students on a certain deadline. I only say this to make clear that I'm sympathetic to what you all have to do. I am. But, that is not where it ends.

The kids DO depend on and need those grades and that feedback in a timely manner if they are going to improve. Or if they get a bad grade and need to bring it up. They can't do those things without the benefit of the previous assignments being returned and graded. And they depend on those grades for colleges and other opportunities. And the parents depend on them to hold their kids accountable. That's hard for us and them when they don't have it and are supposed to have it. So, it's not just you and your struggles unfortunately. You are the "captain of the ship", if you will, and when you're not doing things in a timely manner it affects the rest.

Yes, and it isn't all about enabling laziness by using grades to decide how much effort a student needs to put in. If there are teachers who think that, then it is no wonder the kids struggling.

Some kids, like my daughter, are diligent students who are hard working but don't grasp things as quickly than others. I don't have time to go over all of her work with her in every class each week to make sure that she is getting it. That's not a parent's job. I depend on graded work for that. If I know she is struggling, I will do whatever I can to help her, whether it is helping her myself or getting a tutor. But if she gets the 4 major assignments back the week before the marking period ends, that deprives her the opportunity to get help and to learn from the mistakes she made earlier in the quarter.

I agree that teachers have too much other administrative crap to deal with, but the feed back is still needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of teachers phone it in. This is nothing new.

Plenty of people phone it in in most professions. Cause plenty of people are lazy and don't really care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't also a teacher who had to grade essays.

On the night my essays were due, and a few successive ones, I made that grading my priority. I took steps to lighten my load of completion grading so my time could be spent on the important stuff. I assigned shorter pieces (not term papers) so that the grading was manageable.

If you folks think grading written work isn't important, you are mistaken. People learn to write by writing and rewriting. Teachers need to be part of that.

At least when I got my MAT, we were taught the importance of high quality assessment and feedback to learning.

Yes, it is drudgery. But that is part of what you are paid to do.

Hmmmmm

typo - autocorrect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of teachers phone it in. This is nothing new.

Plenty of people phone it in in most professions. Cause plenty of people are lazy and don't really care.

and it sucks when one of them is charged with teaching your kid to write....

and then another one the following year...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was also a teacher who had to grade essays.

On the night my essays were due, and a few successive ones, I made that grading my priority. I took steps to lighten my load of completion grading so my time could be spent on the important stuff. I assigned shorter pieces (not term papers) so that the grading was manageable.

If you folks think grading written work isn't important, you are mistaken. People learn to write by writing and rewriting. Teachers need to be part of that.

At least when I got my MAT, we were taught the importance of high quality assessment and feedback to learning.

Yes, it is drudgery. But that is part of what you are paid to do.

Congrats, you’re arguing a point nobody was making. We didn’t say it isn’t something we have to do or that we don’t do it. Just that for some subjects it cannot be done quickly and done well or that other things aren’t more important. But go on with your ~MAT

Well the teacher with her wAAAAAAY too long post suggested that the grading wasn't that important because she was so muckinfutch at the other things. so year. No it can't be done quickly. So plan around it. Don't spend so much time with the completion grading. And they've mostly got MAT's too.