end of the marking period

honestly, i don't really remember these times from school. the frenzy of the end of the marking period, where grades are about to be due and the kids who don't do their work during the marking period are (justifiably) freaked out about their grades. i have several kids who come to class every day and never do anything and are moody and obnoxious. i also have several kids who never come to class and don't come in for their make up work. i also have kids who come to class and appear to be doing work but don't turn much in.

so there was a convergence of those kids on my classroom at about 2:40 today when school got out. there was a significant amount of drama--friends coming in and distracting the students who were working, a student who raised his voice at me because of his grade, another girl who often doesn't want to speak to me deciding that she was going to kiss up and make nice--like she has at the end of every marking period. i think i'm going to need to put some kind of time limit on make up work this coming marking period. i'm probably going to say that you have to make up your work within a week of it being due. that means that i have to stay more caught up on grading, which is difficult, but necessary. because this is total madness, plus i have massive piles of paper that i am recycling now. (shh, don't tell....)
grading is really hard. i collect at least 100 pieces of paper every day. i don't grade them all. but i need to be better about knowing what i am and am not going to grade when the week begins, because my current system is not working.

it's amazing how many structures i am constantly reflecting on and wanting to change. i have a lot of students with low grades due to missing work, but i think that it is partly my responsibility for not helping them stay more organized. they will sit in class and listen to me say that i'm collecting something and then not turn it in, and i'll find it in their folder a week later while i'm looking for something in the folder to help them out.

so yeah, grading kind of sucks. it's really not fun, mostly because i am not good at it. grades are due monday. but I AM NOT WORKING TOMMOROW!!!!!!! (tommorow is friday.) let's just say that i am a little bit happy about the long weekend--i need a little break and r & r.

i am off to finish grading and go to bed. until the next time...