The hell of marking
I would love to be blogging tonight on Alistair Darling’s spectacular failure to get it regarding his compensation for making poor people poorer by making a lot of other people a bit richer too, so that we’ll all shut up and keep on voting Labour (except those of us in Northern Ireland, of course). Or I’d like to be writing about how the most appropriate advice for Caitriona Ruane right now is ‘when you’re in a hole, stop digging’. I’d like to be writing a book review, which I haven’t done for a while, or sharing my summer travel plans, or posting yet again on democratic socialism in Northern Ireland.
But I am stuck in the hell that is marking. Every academic I know agrees it’s the worst part of the job, and I feel incredibly guilty for letting out the secret. I have eighty essays to mark and am just over halfway through, and have to get them all done by Thursday morning. That’s eighty checks on subject matter, structure, spelling, references and so on; and eighty sets of meaningful feedback to give.
And that’s why I feel guilty. When I was a student I would have been furious to think that marking my work was a chore, after I’d put so much effort into it. And for all the cynicism about students nowadays, and the odd one who obviously can’t be arsed, most do try hard. They deserve my best attention, to make sure they get a fair mark and also some useful feedback. And of course discovery of the odd gem does keep me going. So back to work, feeling refreshed by the break…..
12 comments:
Tell me more about the odd one who can't be arsed, Jenny.
Wow, Jenny, that is hellish. 80 essays! I have about 10 theses, 10 dissertations spread across 4 weeks... Definitely not as bad.
How much time do you get to do all that? And do you have to give individual feedback?
Worldbystorm - Jenny's away in London just now, but I can tell you, yes she had to give individual feedback on every one! Quite a task!
Phew, I'm back from my wee break now, refreshed and ready to face 80 exam papers ha ha!
Heart - I'm tempted, but because I blog under my own name I wouldn't want to embarass any of my students....But I'm also doing work for a teacher training certificate over the summer, and perhaps I'll post on my own attempts in that direction.
WBS - huh, can I have your job please! I guess the 80 took about 2 weeks, juggling frantically with other stuff needless to say. The individual feedback isn't such a problem as I make notes anyway as I go along. Also, after 80 you do tend to find that patterns emerge and a lot of the comments are quite similar. Re. dissertations though, they can be hard to give feedback on if they're not very good, I find.
Hi Jenny:
Welcome back and this is off topic but had to tell you, I dreamed about you last night, never met you don't know what you look like, but you were showing me how to manage people. You were about 5'6", black hair in a sort of bob, brown eyes, dark clothes, sensible shoes, really nice gold earrings. Anyway the first person you were showing me how to manage was a guy lying on a dolly in the middle of a pair of train tracks and he was busy fixing the wheels of the trains as they slowed down on their way by him. You said to me the tricky part of this is he's got to be shown which way to turn as he gets his north and south mixed up.
'Struth! I couldn't make stuff like this up!
(1)I think I figured out the dream
(2) I think I'm blogging too much to actually dream about a fellow blogger!!
XO
WWW
www - wow! You got that I'm bossy from somewhere, anyway! And the weird thing is that I have trouble telling left from right.
www - Ere, you stop dreaming about my bird or there'll be trouble. The 5'6" is spot on but not the rest, try again! And there's no way J would be giving advice to a train engineer - she runs a mile from anything technical *sigh*
The thing is J&N: I had been internally questioning my decision about focussing more on writing and letting go of the real money-making work (two train tracks) and I had gone to someone who has been so supportive on my writing who gave me a clear plan (north to south?) on what I should be doing with it.
I dream analyze for others but never for myself. This one was so clear tho.
thanks Jenny!!!
XO
WWW
But to get back to the topic, I'm sure marking would be much easier if it wasn't for all the other things you have to do at the same time - research, writing, admin, seminars, conferences etc etc. Lecturers these days are just chronically overloaded with work. Double the number of lecturers, I say!
Yes, but I like doing all those things! (apart from admin, of course). Now back to my 80 exam papers.
No, sorry, don't get me wrong, I've had heaps of essays during the year, but they arrived in two lots, late November and just before Easter. Somehow that seemed more manageable. Re feedback, I find about 30% actually want the marks delivered and feedback given in person.
WBS - I think the truth is there are very few academics who manage to escape, except when on sabbatical of course, and you are right about phasing - I teach 2 modules in 2nd semester and have very little teaching in 1st, so I do get all mine at once, although this will change next year.
I am nearly finished, anyway, and my thoughts are turning to summer writing and, of course, to new posts at last!
Post a Comment