Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend teaches middle school and she has appr. 120 students each day. On most days, they had in homework and classwork for her to grade. That's 240 assignments to grade daily. They also have quizzes once per week and a test every few weeks plus a project every few weeks. She has one 50 minute free period per day to plan and grade. You do the math.

So when does she grade all those tests and papers? Does she save it up until the end of the semester and grade everything in one mega-work-weekend? Or does she grade it every week?

She said she tries her best to have everything done within a week but that is only possible b/c she spends quite a few hours over the weekend and 1-3 hours outside of school hours during the week to get it done.

The worst teachers my children had in HS (FCPS) often took months ~ seriously months. It was ridiculous

Anonymous wrote:Are parents supposed to be this involved in Middle School? My Middle School parent friends say they have little to nothing to do with school any more, which is a relief after all the work they put into their elementary school.

Yes, if your child is struggling with organizational issues (does the homework but forgets to bring it in or turn it in, etc.) it is still appropriate for parents to stay on top of things, help students develop skills and routines to manage materials and remember to turn stuff in.

You could say, "Just let them fail, and they will learn" but the thing is, if the kids has difficulty with organization, he sometimes CAN'T just "learn" how to remember stuff. If it were that easy, all those times he failed would have motivated him to "Remember Better! Just TRY!"

But that is like telling a blind child "Just SEE better, damn it! Try harder to see" in some cases.

In FCPS almost immediately. In parochial schools we've been in, very slow to incompetent. Other privates were somewhat faster but nothing like FCPS.

Anonymous wrote:OP, in our school district, (PGCPS) the expectation is that student work will be graded weekly. i.e. within 7 days.

Thank you. Very helpful.

OP Here -

Generally boys at this age have a harder time being organized than girls. At least among my friends (most of whom have boys), most of the boys are struggling at least a bit.

I don't know what "this involved" means, since I would assume most of us would step up if an obvious problem developed, as is the case with us. Some kids have their hard years in elementary, some later.

Are parents supposed to be this involved in Middle School? My Middle School parent friends say they have little to nothing to do with school any more, which is a relief after all the work they put into their elementary school.

Anonymous wrote:My friend teaches middle school and she has appr. 120 students each day. On most days, they had in homework and classwork for her to grade. That's 240 assignments to grade daily. They also have quizzes once per week and a test every few weeks plus a project every few weeks. She has one 50 minute free period per day to plan and grade. You do the math.

So when does she grade all those tests and papers? Does she save it up until the end of the semester and grade everything in one mega-work-weekend? Or does she grade it every week?

OP, in our school district, (PGCPS) the expectation is that student work will be graded weekly. i.e. within 7 days.

Anonymous wrote: And I really don't care when the late work is graded, if at all.

To be clearer: What I am trying to get at is simple: How long after work is turned in should it take for me to know that it wasn't turned in? Less than ten days? Less than five days? What is your answer.

For god sakes, I was joking about instantaneous.... obviously that is unreasonable. But what is reasonable? And I really don't care when the late work is graded, if at all.

18:24 - All at once, meaning... how many days from the time a unit test is turned in until the kids have the feedback.

18:02 - BTDT - and in my NYC public high school, where I taught, with four preps, the long delay I am seeing in my son's district here in the burbs would not be permitted.

Let me get this straight. It's okay for your son to turn his work in late but you expect instant round feedback from his teacher?

As a teacher I grade all assignments at once. Ie all quizes or homeworks that are the same. When an assignment comes in late, I grade it when I have time. That's usually after I'm done grading the assignments that were turned in on time.

My friend teaches middle school and she has appr. 120 students each day. On most days, they had in homework and classwork for her to grade. That's 240 assignments to grade daily. They also have quizzes once per week and a test every few weeks plus a project every few weeks. She has one 50 minute free period per day to plan and grade. You do the math.

Here is a clue: not instantaneously.

Middle School Teachers:

Please tell me what reasonable expectation should be regarding how often you enter grades into the electronic system. Since this is our only feedback, I want to know what I should expect. I know that when I was teaching, grading was supposed to be done fairly quickly so that the feedback would be of use.

My son struggles with turning in work on time, and monitoring is a challenge. Obviously as a mum, "instantaneous" would be my first choice, so I am asking you. What is reasonable?