The Constant Struggle

I'm sure everyone has different constant struggles; mine is doing what I need to when I don't feel like it, especially when it comes to grading. I could teach for hours on end and never tire of it, but when it comes to grading papers, I have the worst time keeping up! Actually, if I get started it's not usually such a big deal. It's the procrastination that kills me. Next week is Thanksgiving break (which I just realized yesterday morning), and one of the schools where I teach has the entire week off. The other has most of the week off. I just have to go in on Monday night. I didn't do a great job of staggering my essay due dates (plus the night class, which is the developmental course, writes during almost every session), and as a result, I have quite a load of papers.

My goal is to return everything before break. When we return, classes are almost over. I can't say I'm sorry to see this semester end. Especially with my house construction at the beginning, but also because I'm teaching so many classes/different courses, it's been rough! But I think I did myself a few favors by taking on so much, one of them being that administration at both institutions knows that I'm willing to step up if a class becomes available last-minute. I'm going to do myself a bigger favor next semester and teach less. It hasn't been just this semester; for the past year I haven't had more than a five-day break between semesters, and that's just not enough. I will pick up more hours scoring essays online; at least when a shift of scoring ends, there's nothing to take home afterwards. It's just done until the next time.

As you may have guessed, writing my blog post today has been one of the ways in which I'm procrastinating. A stack of papers is sitting right next to me, awaiting the mark of my pink pen. (I started using pink in for grading many years ago; it seems less harsh than red.) So no more struggling today. I'm back to it.