Time Hacks for Teachers - Grading Like a C.O.A.C.H.

Introduction

When I first started out in teaching (ages ago), I was determined to be the best teacher I could be. It didn't take long to realize it was going to be harder than I thought. Creating meaningful assessments, and lessons and units and...and it wasn't long until I was out of time. And that didn't even include grading.

I have to admit, I became a procrasti-grader. Grading was, to me, the most boring, horrible, terrible part of teaching. Interacting with students and creative planning I was great at. Marking errors on assessments, not so much.

Work that I took up began to pile up, which like rainy days and Mondays, always got me down. But...I wanted to be the best teacher, and my students needed feedback, so I would take home stacks of papers to grade. I graded on weekends. I graded during basketball games - not if I was playing. I graded all the time...until I'd had enough.

You may not know this about me, but I'm sarcastic. I've even been called a smart a...a smart something. And in a fit of desperation and defiance, I stopped grading papers one day. Instead, I typed up a bill for overtime hours.

My administrators were sitting at a table in the lunchroom, and I handed it to them. The seriously scrutinized it. Then they all laughed.

I laughed too, but down deep it was depressing. No one seemed to care that my job was becoming my life. No one offered any hope.

Dragging myself back to my classroom, I sat at my desk contemplating a career change. I still liked kids, and creative planning rocked, but grading had become my arch nemesis. Like the superhero I am, I decided I could either fight back or be defeated.

I fought back. Superman could bend steel beams, but I was learning to bend my self-imposed grading rules. The Flash was fast, but I learned to grade even faster. By the time I stepped out of the classroom (2 1/2 years ago, I became a media specialist), I never took grading home.

In my new position, I have been surveying teachers, and keep hearing words I used to say, "I don't have enough time." Because of that, I'm going to share with you some of my greatest grading hacks.
You may not be able to just take them and use them like I did, but my hope is that they will spark ideas to help you become a grading superhero too.

Don't forget to subscribe to get all the grading hacks. (And yes, I will explain why I call it 'Grading Like a C.O.A.C.H.)

C - Constantly Assessing