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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am an English teacher. I provide a ton of meaningful feedback. It’s actually the #1 reason I am thinking of leaving the profession after 18 years of successful teaching.

I agree with the parents here. Yes, written feedback is very important. That’s why I do it. Unfortunately, feedback on one set of essays can take me 30 hours. I don’t get ANY time to grade at work, so that is done in the evenings, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. It isn’t unusual for me to work 7 10-hour days a week. This isn’t exaggeration. It’s the only way I can get that feedback to students quick enough to make it matter.

I have my own family. My own children are growing up without a mom since my head is always bent over papers for 10 months of every year. It isn’t worth it.

I’m planning on quitting. It isn’t pay or student behavior driving my decision. It’s the grading and the system’s lack of respect for my time. [/quote]

Thank you for your service.  Thank you for providing real meaningful feedback.  Maybe not every student learned from every comment but they learned from you.  [/quote]

As a fellow English teacher, this is so trite. I know you mean well, but this isn’t true. And what people expect us to give up for this job (e.g. hours and hours of our own life to provide all this never-used or even looked at feedback) isn’t worth the trade off of what we lose just to be patted on the back with toss off comments that reward us for martyrdom. [/quote]

This was my comment.  I didn't mean to be trite, I was trying to express appreciation.  Did all of her students read all of the comments she made and spent her own time on, all of the time?  No.  Did some of them read them some of the time? Yes.  And some of them learned and improved.

Students now don't get any comments so when some of them go on to be teachers, comments will be an unheard of concept for them and their students.  It's a difficult way to learn.  [/quote]

Sorry, but as a former English teacher, I’m gonna be blunt in saying you are completely off base.  The vast majority of students do NOT learn from comments written on paper.  Fewer than 5 out of 125, on average, in my experience, pay any attention whatsoever to them.  Maybe 1 will follow up and ask for clarification.

The 10-20 hours per week I spent on writing feedback were a HUGE waste of time in terms of actual impact on students.  I had some parents who were highly impressed.  Parents who paid attention to the feedback…and some who disputed it because they did the vast majority of work on the paper and were emotionally invested in it.  But my 7th, 10th, or 11th graders?  Nope.  (almost) nobody cared.  And those 5 kids who did quite literally did not deserve 10-20 hours of my time.

Those few who cared would have gotten more out of a dedicated 5 minute conference.  And EVERYTHING for all my students would have been better if I had spent 5 more hours planning instruction, and literally NO time writing comments on paper.  None.  But one hour at home or in the weekends.

But I didn’t know that then, and I was too much of a people pleaser to risk annoying those parents who expected comments.  So I burned out and left teaching after 7 years.  And I can never get those 7 years of my life back, most of my 20’s, when I lost friendships, neglected boyfriends, and missed countless events with my family outbid state because I was never done grading.  Every day off I was grading.  Every Sunday.  Every long weekend.  Every Spring break.

Nope.  OP, this is not a good use of a teacher’s time.

I am back in education now, many years later, in a non-classroom role.  [/quote]

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