Papers, toenails, and Ella Enchanted

I rebelled tonight.  It was a big moment.  I'm not a rebel.  I'm the opposite.  I'm the embodiment of a rule-follower.  But tonight, I rebelled.

Kind of.

I had assigned a short story for my students to write and hand in before Thanksgiving.  The catch was I was gone the two days before break because I was in Disneyland with my kids and my husband and his family.  And it was totally worth it! (But that's for another post.)

The students handed in their papers, and the bright white pages sat in the basket until I got back into my classroom on Sunday.  At that point, I simply organized them into folders.

And there they sit.

I brought home one period to grade.  I even sat down to do that first before my other home duties while my kiddos were still awake.  Eat the elephant one bite at a time and start with the worst part, right?  Well, as fate would have it, I forgot the code sheet I use to grade, and since narrative writing isn't as common as expository, I don't have those codes memorized. 

So I said, "Screw it."  Well actually, I said "F- it" but I'm trying to clean up the lingo a bit.

I left my grading on the table.

And went upstairs.

And brushed my daughter's hair.

And clipped my boys' nails.

And calmed down the sobbing 4-year-old.

And showered him.

And cuddled.

And read Ella Enchanted to my daughter.

I rebelled tonight.

I chose to be a mom over a teacher.

And it felt great.

Until I see that damn stack of papers tomorrow.

Fuck.

Because there's no easy answer.  There's a hard balance to try to figure out as a mom and a teacher.  I love the advice I get though:

"Just be more efficient."  Great - teach me how!

"If you don't want to grade it, then don't assign it!"  - Yes, because having our students do less work, less reading, less writing is scientifically-proven to help them be smarter and more productive citizens (sense the sarcasm).

"Just put points at the top but don't actually read it." I have heard teens are easily buffaloed.

"It really doesn't matter how quick you get it back to them.  They don't care anyway."  The 20-page short stories my students handed in after revising 3 drafts would beg to differ.


So what to do?  I find it so difficult to get grading done during the day between meetings during preps and copies to make and students to meet with.  I'm jealous of the teachers who can get it done (my husband being one of them!).  I keep saying I should hire an education major to help me grade so they can learn the ropes.  But I struggle with this as well.  They are my students and I should be providing the feedback.  Do I follow the advice above?  That last three aren't very feasible and the first one seems beyond my reach.

So what to do?  For tonight, it's putting the stack back in my bag and trying again tomorrow.

But, damn, that stack of papers is huge!