The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Education:How To
I recently polled our community on Instagram about the paper pile. Because let's face it, it's a huge part of an English teacher's life. How many papers will you assign? How will you grade them? When will you grade them? These become defining questions. I heard from teachers who have graded papers at an ice cream social, at the bar, at a Superbowl party, in the emergency room, in the delivery room, in a parent's recovery room at the hospital room, at the beach, and more.
I certainly remember the folders of papers always weighing down my bag from my teaching life. And I remember grading past midnight.
I'm sure you can relate to all of this. But more than ever lately, are you asking the same question as me? DOES IT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY?
The teaching profession has suffered through many difficult challenges of late, and the teacher shortage is the newest on a long list. I see many colleagues leaving the classroom or thinking about leaving, and while I know there are many factors, the crush of grading still feels like one of the biggest.
After all, there would be more time to creatively deal with planning, admin tasks, differentiation, parent communication, and everything else if English teachers weren't trying to find four or five hours a week to stare down the paper pile.
So today I want to suggest something, just my two cents. I think it would be better to dramatically change the way you grade to give yourself back time, than to be pushed out of the classroom by your paper pile, or made miserable by it. I think this is a conversation we need to be having honestly with our colleagues, and I hope this podcast might lead you to bring it up with your department if you feel you can.
Today on the podcast I'm going to share six ideas for taking back some of your grading time, and then in several upcoming episodes I'll be going deeper with some of these strategies.
Go Further:
Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.
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083: Engage your Snapchatters with Booksnaps, featuring Tara Martin
082: Innovative Elective (or Unit) Ideas for ELA
081: Empowering Students with Project-Based Learning
080: Let's Teach Students how to Collaborate
079: Less Testing. More Innovating.
078: The Quick Guide to First Chapter Fridays
077: Integrating the Arts & ELA
076: Host a "This I Believe" Radio Show
075: 10 Review Activities that aren't Boring
074: Infographic Projects for the Win
073: Help for Harkness Discussions
072: Connecting your English Classroom to the World
071: How to talk about Equity and Inclusion, with Liz Kleinrock
070: Help for Student Apathy, with Dave Stuart Jr.
069: 40 Ways to Reduce your Grading Time
068: Confronting Teacher Exhaustion, with Angela Watson
067: Look Forward to Teaching Vocabulary
066: We Need More Diverse Books
065: Final Exams that feel Meaningful
064: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Workshop
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