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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote]

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[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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. 
[/quote]

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