Piles of paperwork, portfolios, and students' outputs await on every teachers' table. Thinking about it makes me want to puke and close my eyes wishing it will all go away. But the reality is, it is part of our job. Actually, making a dent by checking and grading will need a lot of willingness and strength from a teacher; not to mention these works will eventually pile up no matter how organized, resilient, and planned you are. Grading your students' works is a tedious task.
Disclaimer: This post is for entertainment purposes only. These tips, hacks, or advice works for me but can differ depending on the teacher. These are all base on my overall experience as an educator. Please do not come for me.
As teachers we cannot avoid the inevitable we need to face this no matter what. So here are ways to improve and make your grading life as a teacher easy and stress-free.
1. Set an appropriate grading deadline
Piles of students' works are normal, the only thing that is not normal in this scenario is no matter how much we try to check and finish grading it, we still end up with mountains and mountains of unfinished ungraded works. In this sense I recommend, we set a time limit and deadline in grading. As teachers, we need to avoid getting tired because we are not done grading things every day, for every waking moment of our teaching career grading students' works will not stop. We have to accept that grading is part of our everyday occurrence.
2. Stop grading everything
Hold your horses! Stop judging! All teachers are doing this, some works or activities are used for reinforcements, review, or enhancement but it doesn't mean it is needed to be graded and plotted in students grading sheet. At this point stop grading everything, check and segregate works that are needed to be graded and recorded. With this action, you can lessen the amount of work you need to record. As teachers, we can also provide healthy consultation or feedback to students without letting them be dishearted or demoralized.
3. Technology is useful
Did you know that there are applications and websites that you can make quizzes, activities, and exams and at the same time grade and the record itself? Yeah! I recommend we utilize this especially right now that online classes are the new learning mode. Let us use our creative and tech-savvy abilities. In using technology we also encourage ourselves to learn new techniques, avoid stress, and validate the grades of students.
4. Locate a grading station
Environment affects someone's disposition in life, the same goes for our willingness to grade. We cannot complete the task if we are constantly getting distracted; so get a location or environment that you can peacefully grade. Know what type of teacher you are and what can make you concentrate on your work. For me, I concentrate more if music is blasting through my ears. I prefer wearing a headset while grading grades.
5. Check and record along the way (grade in small chucks)
I do this religiously! English teachers (like me) do accumulate a lot of worksheets that do pile up like a mountain on my table if left unattended. So when I have to check an essay as part of our lesson, I do it while students work on their own essay. With this, I gradually finish an entire block or section in the process. In this way, I can already provide instant feedback to my students.
6. Use consistent grading marks
Using rubrics and grading patterns is useful for teachers. Whether the student's works are subjective or objective base as long as you the teacher knows what your grades are base on, the intended output you will get won't be lost and you can finish grading on time. Also, we can already set our minds in completion mode and settle inconsistency.
7. Step back and walk away
They say that facing your demons will make you stronger. That is true but facing piles of materials to be graded doesn't promote you facing demons, but rather you make your head hurt. At some point, you need to stop and step back from the grading process. Find inner peace becomes continuing; it is difficult for a teacher if you do not have the right mindset in the task in front of you.
Time is essential for teachers; we have a lot of things we need to do and focusing our entire energy on grading is a literal waste of time. We need to regroup and refocus our plans to ensure that we hit all of our targets and complete our tasks. The lasting a teacher want is to stress or burnout over piles of papers.
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