Well, the marking’s finally done.
Phew.
And this was my marking load for the year-end examinations:
7 classes worth of English essays
4 classes worth of Unseen essays
3 classes worth of Twelfth Night Essays and Passage-Based Answers.
I used up a whole pen’s worth of red ink even. Yeesh.
A few things I realised about marking:
1. You cannot be too personally involved, no matter how frustrating it is to read some students’ work. It’s a real challenge to stay impartial and unbiased, as far as humanly possible. That’s where band descriptors come in. They really help to keep your marking fair.
2. You need to take a break every 20 scripts or so; not doing so might be detrimental to your health. You might feel like pulling out your hair in sheer frustration. You might feel so depressed about your lack of teaching ability that you contemplate another career. You might be so stunned by the ability of your students to glean such amazing insights about life and the text you’re teaching (this is more applicable to English and Literature teachers) that you wonder if they aren’t all little geniuses or something.
3. You gain a certain malicious joy in defacing all those pristine little scripts after a while.
4. Caffeine, in its various forms and sources, e.g. coffee, tea, Mountain Dew, Coke, Red Bull, is a definite must.
5. There is nothing more tiring and painful in teaching, at least in a school like Cedar Girls’, if you were to judge from the screams and moans emanating from the staff room. (Don’t worry, girls. It’s not so much that the scripts were poor, than simply the sheer number of scripts and language we have to wade through.) Not so surprisingly, they were produced mainly by the English, Literature and Humanities teachers. The Mathematics and Science teachers were all deliriously enjoying the marking days. Most of them were anyway.
That’s my obligatory post about the life and the various travails of a teacher.
Did I mention I was glad that marking is over?
why dont you quit since you feel so frustrated. why keep yourself to this unbearable pain and agony, especially when it is ‘detrimental to your health’.
marking our papers are datt badd?gosh.well….bright side is datt ur done with marking rytes?huge relief isnt it?dont worrie wen sch ends…..u can have a nice long break.
so hang in there Mrs Sng!
by the wae…..u dont find cedar girls such a horrendous place to teach do you?
eh? The post was obviously written tongue in cheek
Don’t worry, Arini. I’m quite enjoying my time at Cedar.
wow the exams are over early.. i vaguely remember i used to have exams in november..
hey mr sng!
thanks haha i got the highest i ever gotten in my life for unseen =/
thanks to you! (:
1. Hi Sandra, wait till you realise school ends at the end of October!
2. Nah..thanks to you, jinghan! If you put in the hard work and you write accroding to the suggested structure, you’ll do well.
Keep it up! (especially if i do not get to teach you all unseen next year…)
hello(:
thanks for the words of encouragement you have written on my unseen. i am sorry i have not put in much effort. i definately will look deeply into what you said. THANKS(:
for never giving up on me.
and being a great teacher.
have a great day.
God bless.
Well, frm what I’ve gathered, your comments do get personal! Be it good or bad..
But anyway, it’s just too bad for us students that your “command of language” is very high or whatever. Sigh. I’m still pissing and moaning about how strict you marked! grr. i cant sem to get over it!!
And yes, I agree. We aren’t “something”s. Haha.
See you around.
i meant sEem
hm. if i knew that when i was in school i would have written alot less in my lit papers.
and yes! i just found out today that sec schs get 2 mths break!! BEFORE MY EXAMS END, ridiculous.
huda, there’s no point being too lenient now (and i was a little) and building up false confidence that you are all very proficient at this point of time.
Some of you are, most of you are getting there, and some simply need to work harder.
My comments are somewhat personal, not in the negative sense, they are all meant to encourage. I am a little stricter for those i think should be acing literature at this point of time though.
But from this side of the educational tracks, it’s really quite heartbreaking to see students who can be and should be brilliant, not be as a result of a lack of effort.
At the end of the day, we only have to confront ourselves and be honest as to whether we have given our all, our best in all that we do. Because that’s truly the most any person can expect from another. (This refers to every person. including myself when i teach, not just specifically you yeah, huda?)
Sigh. Yeah okay. You’re one step further huh.(:
You wrote ‘fed’ instead of ‘fedora’ in her lit paper’s comments. Was it intentional? tot she’s more commonly called ‘fe’.. weird.. nvm..
hello!
hmm. did you mark the papers for our class? =o
Wow, didn’t realise that marking was such a torture yea? Hahaz, the more painful the process, the greater the satisfaction of completing it.
Wahahaha! Got the highest ever in my life for both lit and eng. Thank you thank you thank you MrSng!=)
And yup, I will try to search for the Light that was meant to reign in my heart. Thanks for the encouragement.