It has a been a busy weekend. First, I went to an astronomers convention on Saturday. Sunday, I spent grading. Oh, how I hate to grade. It was always one of the drawbacks to being a teacher. With my new teaching gig, they have grading deadlines. Ugh! I’m tired and a bit down today. My parents were supposed to come visit at the end of the month, but for the second year in a row, they have backed out of visiting. This always gets me down. I haven’t seen them since Christmas, and they promised me they would come this year since they didn’t come last year. Anyway, it’s just disappointing.
7 comments:
Full Pouch Monday gets rid of the Monday Blues. Agreed? Denis
When I taught high school English, I hated grading papers. Now, I teach Written Composition to community college students (with the exception of an African American Literature class), and these papers are much more intriguing, as the students are at an interesting time in their life, when they begin to question their worldview and deal with the shit they have been through. I much prefer grading their papers. Even if it takes longer now, and the grammar mistakes that college level students still make disappoint me, it is still a thousand times better than grading pointless sentences.
Denis said....
Trevon I have listened to many people from high class to low class and I have to say you are very opinionated and a person who does not like things that are "not your way". Something is really, really, really bothering you. The comments section is about freedom to write things that would stir the imagination, as long as you don't go overboard and insult or degrade. What did you just do to me? You just made the CARDINAL SIN!!! You are acting like a stiff upper lip snob that should be happy that to have freedom of expression. We demand the freedom of expression whether you be white, black, yellow or red, and that is guaranteed under the law but you deny me. You want to tear that down. Besides, when someone else writes something here you are not on their case but just decided to climb on mine. Did you forget to take your MEDS today? Is there someone there with you or are these the words of a self proclaimed almighty person? Explain that will you? Please, I wish you would go hide under a gigantic rock with the creepy crawlers with your marker and teach them your so called English Literature. It is people like you that would take the world into a primitive situation like in the era of evilness and no acceptance of who the person is. I have to ask, are you discriminating against me because this is not an English Literature Class Essay or because I am of another colour? I still believe there is someone else behind this that does not have the guts to write that they don't want me on this site. You talk of worldview and look at the discriminator you are. You Hypocrite!!
Denis, I have to say that I am shocked, and somewhat at a loss for words, as I do not know what you are referring to. I was sharing with Joe that I, too, hated grading papers, but it is a little more tolerable for me now than it used to be. I'm sharing my experience, letting Joe know that I feel his pain, and my comment was not directed at you in any way. Honestly, I did not notice your comment.
The most surprising accusation that you have leveled against me is that I am discriminating against you based on your skin color. I have no clue what your skin color is and, unless you are assuming my skin color because of my name, I am not sure how you know what my skin color is. Also, I do not think myself more highly than anyone else. I was raised in poverty and struggled with Dyslexia most of my life. I have not had an easy life. I continue to struggle. I am not better than anyone, but I am also not less than anyone.
My passion in life is to help others. That is what motivated me to enter the field that I did. I wanted to help lift others up, as others had done for me. I wanted to help students who had been left behind, like me, to catch up. The first education position I held, out of college, was teaching high school students to read and write, because they had either been failed by the school system in rural Alabama or required a little more stirring up of the gifts within than a classroom teacher who oversaw 18-20 students could offer them. This was my favorite job and I would still be doing it, had the grant that funded my job not expired. I now work as an adjunct English instructor at a community college. I have no benefits, and my contract pays me less than minimum wage. I require a lot of help from my parents, and that is very humbling as a grown man, but it is the only work I can find at the moment. It is not glorious work at all, and I certainly do not believe that holding this position makes me special.
While I do not appreciate the accusations in which you leveled against me, I concede that my comment could have been better. I should not be as disappointed that college-level students find it difficult to spell or use punctuation, because, for the most part, it is not a fault of their own. But, if a student chooses to continue their education and is accepted into college, more is expected of them than of others and, if their grammatical errors outnumber their accuracies, our college offers remedial classes for that. I was expressing my frustration with the grading process, not with students. I do apologize if this expression offended you. I did not at all deny you a freedom of expression, as you put it, and did not direct anything at you, Denis. Please offer me the same courtesy.
I am completely overwhelmed by these comments. I took both comments as completely separate and I agree with Trevon that the way students write these days is disappointing. Anyway, I hope differences have been resolved, whatever they may have been.
Sorry for hijacking your comment section with a ridiculously long rebuttal, Joe. A nerve was struck and I'm a notoriously longwinded speaker. I'm still learning that, oftentimes, no response is the best response. :-)
Trevon, it’s ok. No worries.
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