{"id":486,"date":"2013-11-04T22:31:29","date_gmt":"2013-11-05T05:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alexfaye.com\/?p=486"},"modified":"2013-11-04T23:38:27","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T06:38:27","slug":"i-snapped-at-that-poor-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/?p=486","title":{"rendered":"I snapped at that poor kid"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn’t terrible, but for me it was out of character. \u00a0My excuses are perfectly legitimate — I hate the question, I’m sleep deprived, and I’m defensive about this because the question (no, the answer) seems to imply I’m disinterested or incompetent.<\/p>\n

The students turned in essays on Friday, and today is Monday; \u00a0the question this unsuspecting student asked was, “Are you finished reading the essays?”<\/p>\n

And because I spent so much of my free time this past weekend working on grades — and it was a sunny, crisp fall weekend, perfect for golf, hiking, biking, maybe one of the last nice weekends in a while — and I am cranky from reading student work all of the time, like a martyr or a lunatic, I snapped.<\/p>\n

“Are you kidding me!? \u00a0Do the math! \u00a0That would be impossible. \u00a0There are not enough hours in a weekend for me to take home a tall stack on Friday, and be done on Monday, AND get report cards in.”<\/p>\n

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He was taken aback by the ferocity of my answer. \u00a0(Kids have no idea.) \u00a0I turned on him like a cat whose tail has been stepped on. \u00a0He was apologetic, which made me see what a jerk I was. \u00a0Because what was this kid actually asking?<\/p>\n

“Have you read my essay? Is it any good?”<\/p>\n

And that, homies, is MY JOB. \u00a0My work is to give meaningful feedback so they can grow, and\u00a0these papers I’ve collected are their personal statements, so they have bared their souls and are feeling nervous about it. \u00a0They want and need a gentle and helpful reader. \u00a0Someone who takes them seriously as a writer. \u00a0And although their peers have been all over those papers, what they really want, and what they really need…is me.<\/p>\n

But I think that kid may be a bit wary of me from now on. \u00a0I apologized to him twice, but I feel like I damaged something.<\/p>\n

This is what I spoke about at the October 10 School Board meeting. \u00a0I said to the board, “I have 175 students. \u00a0If I assigned one paragraph to all of my students, and if I took 4 minutes for each writing sample \u2014 to read it, analyze what’s working and what is not, then to write a terse and directive note, and a note of encouragement \u2014 it would take me over 11 hours to work through that stack. \u00a0So I can’t give that paragraph 4 minutes. \u00a0The best I can do is 40 seconds — and the only thing I can say to a kid in 40 seconds is Check! Plus! Minus!”<\/p>\n

Not helpful to the writer. \u00a0Not a good use of my time. \u00a0Scoring in this way becomes nothing more than a bookkeeping task, when what kids actually need is feedback. \u00a0More than a grade, they need to know what to do next to improve.<\/p>\n

And when would I put those 11 hours together to read those paragraphs? \u00a0During my paid work day? \u00a0Not possible. \u00a0I take my free time to do that work — time that other people spend doing things like, well, everything else that composes a good life. \u00a0Me? I need exercise and rest and time with my loved ones. \u00a0I don’t get enough of that vital stuff during the school year. \u00a0I also don’t take the 4 minutes that the kids need on that paragraph. \u00a0I cannot. \u00a0Because the next day, it’s something else. \u00a0There’s always something new to do.<\/p>\n

And here, we’re talking about\u00a0essays — not just paragraphs. \u00a0On an essay like this, I cannot give any kind of feedback in under 6 minutes. \u00a0Six minutes is fast reading, fast writing. \u00a0And, of course, I’m a veteran, so I would never assign (rarely assign) every student on my roster a paper that is due on the same day \u2014 even the same week! \u00a0Even so. \u00a0To get through these essays is going to take some time.<\/p>\n

It is unreasonable to expect English teachers to see over 150 kids in a day. \u00a0It just is. \u00a0It’s not this kid’s fault. \u00a0And it’s not mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn’t terrible, but for me it was out of character. \u00a0My excuses are perfectly legitimate — I hate the question, I’m sleep deprived, and I’m defensive about this because the question (no, the answer) seems to imply I’m disinterested or incompetent. The students turned in essays on Friday, and today is Monday; \u00a0the question […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}