I really hate giving exams. Especially writing. It results in so much mind-numbing paperwork. First everything needs to be marked, then I have to spend forever calculating grades and filling in the official forms. Gah.
One more to go. Year 2 Writing at 9:55 on Monday morning. I’m trying to get all the other marking out of the way before that, so that I can focus on getting that exam marked and my Year 2 Writing grades finalised as quickly as possible. That means, however, that I spent an hour and a half in the office this morning, and would’ve gone back this afternoon if I didn’t have other things that need doing as soon as possible and friends weren’t on their way over- one of whom has only just escaped the wilds of America to return to civilisation. This, of course, means that I’ll be spending more time in the office tomorrow clearing up the rest of the outstanding paperwork in preparation for next week.
I am sooooooo looking forward to this semester being over. There’s a lot of stuff I want to get back into over the holiday that I just haven’t had the time or energy for this semester.
I hear you. I love teaching, but writing/grading exams and writing assignments is the worst part of the gig. I find it’s helpful though, to see each paper/exam as part of a larger conversation with the student on the issues at hand with my comments as a way to engage the students’ individual ideas. It is still a struggle at times, but it does give the exercise a larger purpose.
That’s a good idea, but I’d like to have something more than Academic Writing to converse about. And my students are all over the place in terms of both English ability and intellectual maturity. The world’s most boring textbooks with topics that are not especially relevant to young Chinese don’t help. Still, it seems I’ll have more time to focus on the writing classes next semester. I’ll see if I can’t spice things up a little and get more of a conversation going. But for now I just want this semester out of the way.