Yes, I sometimes think about a career change, but envision it more as a career progression, as another step along this path I’ve been following…now, if only I could figure out what that next step is…

I got a new idea this year to help me cut down on time grading, and also to help students (and parents) really focus on what needs to be worked on in the writing. I made a checklist of all the errors I was finding. I also added positive comments on. then instead of WRITING the same comments over and over (taking hours) I can check them on the checklist. This checklist can be stapled on the front of the writing assignment. If they make the same error six times, on the line next to that comment, instead of just checking it, I write “6X.” I have positive and negative comments on the sheet, like “Interesting,” “Repetitive,” “Forgetting Punctuation,” etc. I’m finding it to be a real time-saver.

Sometimes I give students two grades–one for CONTENT and the other for MECHANICS. (Not my original idea, my own teacher did that 35 years ago when I was in high school.) This takes care of the problem of students who have really good ideas they’ve written about, who can get an A on content, yet might have a zero on mechanics (my teacher used to take off -10 for each mechanical error). It also takes care of perfectly written papers, on which someone might get an A in mechanics, but because they had nothing to say, might get a C or D in content.

Of course, I realize you are probably already doing things like this since you are a writing teacher, so please excuse me for mentioning these ideas if you are–I only want to be helpful, not condescending!

It might also be time for a career change in the next few years, if that is an option…..I think we all need to do different things in our lives (I’m currently in about my fourth career option).

Best regards,
Eileen
Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas
elementaryteacher.wordpress.com

Maia: I actually took a sick (read: mental health) day following writing that post, and it did wonders. When I returned to work the following day, I decided to make a couple of conscious mental adjustments (I’ll write about that in my next post) and by the end of the day, I was feeling sincerely better about everything. What’s more, I calculated my students’ overall grades so far and most of them are passing, albeit by the skin of their teeth. I’m not sure if this is a good thing, but overall, my feeling is that the potential for joy is still there, though dormant.

Eileen: students are not required to pass the TOEFL for admission to our college; they write an admission test, and they are asked at the time that they write it whether they’ve written the TOEFL, but I don’t know what use is made of that info. But I agree that there is a whole worms’ nest of problems conflating here, and I have a few opinions about what would help solve the mess (extremely small class sizes, for example, as well as the measures I detail in this post).

I am definitely suffering from a bit of burnout – I started recognizing it about a year ago – and I think your suggestion of talking to other teachers is an excellent one. I’m also trying to arrange to take a semester off as soon as I can, in order to get some perspective on everything.

Thanks so much for your comments, guys. I think one of the main reasons I wrote this post was the hope of not feeling so alone with it all.

At our school, every teacher is wondering if the previous teachers did their job teaching writing, and yet, we are all teaching it!

Does your school require the TOEFL examination for foreign language students? If it does require a reasonable score, part of the problem is that in many other countries, students are not taught to write their own opinions and support them. They are taught only to memorize and regurgitate. So this could be part of the problem.

It sounds like you’re getting burned out. Could you find some other teachers in your same situation, and ask how they deal with this overwhelming problem of grading, and some of these other issues? You might find a way to avoid complete burnout this way.

Best regards,
Eileen
Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas (in the Middle East)
elementaryteacher.wordpress.com

Having been away for a while, and feeling dread at the thought of returning to all that marking and that sense of trying to do the impossible, I so know how you feel right now. I fear that in its prioritizing finances over education, our system is slowly but surely burning out many, if not most, of its teachers, or at least those who care as much as we do and who try to teach not just content but form and expression. An overhaul of the whole system is needed.

Having said that, I suspect that at the end of the term, or perhaps after the holidays, you’ll find that you did make a difference. Perhaps you’ll meet those students two or three terms from now and they’ll tell you how much your class helped prepare them for their post-intros, how they carried what they learned from you into the Exit test, how you were the first person who really taught them to write an essay properly. It takes years to develop good language skills. We can’t accomplish in one term what takes years, but we can sow seeds and lay good foundations and I have no doubt that you do just that over and over and over again. You are a good teacher and I hope your joy returns!