Overload
I am experiencing correcting overload.
They put us on the computers today, and what happens is a kid’s paper comes up on the screen, you read it a couple times, assign it the two scores and two comments, send it into cyberspace, and another one pops up.
This is repeated over, and over, and over……
Now I realize that this doesn’t exactly sound like rocket science, but it’s not the difficulty of the task, it’s the monotony that is getting to me.
The question that every fourth grader in the state of Massachusetts had to answer was: "What is your favorite season? Describe why you like it."
Obviously there are only so many things for anyone to like about any season, and most ten-year-olds have a limited amount of experiences with any season. So basically they’re all the same.
Summer is beach, sports, hot weather, visiting grandparents. Fall is football, jumping in leaves and going back to school. Winter is snow, snow sports, holidays and school cancellations. Spring is left out, except for the few kids who like planting flowers, and for some the start of baseball or soccer.
This is getting old very quickly.
I think the most difficult part is reading the kid’s writing. They’ve scanned the handwritten test pages into the computer and some of these kids write in teensy-weensy script – or print.
I have to keep putting aside the fact that I’ve been a special education teacher for so many years and that I can read anything the kids write. The words may be spelled terribly or sentences crammed together without punctuation, but I can still read it.
These kids spell the way they hear the words, so if you sound it out you know what they’re saying. Of course the rest of the world might not be able to read it, so I can’t give it a passing mark.
This is where my argument with the state comes in. If someone had been allowed to scribe for these kids, they would have had cute, interesting ideas that are rich in imagery because these kids all think in pictures.
By three o’clock my eyes were starting to shut and all the writing was beginning to blur.
Part of this is my fault for staying out too late last night and not getting as much sleep as I needed, but I think a bigger part is eye strain and brain freeze. These papers are all starting to look alike and it’s becoming harder and harder to not just assign them an arbitrary score and move on.
Two more days of this.
Listening to: highlights from Whistle Down the Wind
Reading: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Weather: 74, sunny
Trivia: So happy they could just spit!
If you were a Masai tribesman, it's doubtful you'd ever get fined for spitting on the sidewalk. Among the Tanzanian tribe, spitting is regarded as an indication of reverence and good will. Indeed, newborn children are spat upon by those who wish to endow the child with good luck. Masai spit when they meet, and spit to say goodbye. To seal a bargain, two traders will spit at each other. No word on whether this exchange of bodily fluids has survived into the age of AIDS. Certainly, if you ever visit the Masai, you may want to leave your chewing tobacco at home.
Cool word: POTENT, PUISSANT, and POSSE.
Probably the adjective "puissant" (which is pronounced in a variety of ways – choose from "PWEE-suhnt" or "PYOO-ih-Suhnt" or "Pyoo-ISS-suhnt") is the least familiar of the trio. These days PUISSANT, and its related noun PUISSANCE, have for the most part been relegated to the lexicon of the literati. So, what does a poet mean to convey with these words? In a word: Power. Or powerful. Puissance means power, might, or force.
These words all come from Latin potens, "potent," which itself was the present participle of posse, "to be able." Seeing that, it's easy to see where POTENT and POSSE came from: Potent means powerful, and a posse is – as the bad guys found out, in the days of the Wild West – a (usually armed) group that's been empowered with (usually temporary) legal authority. These are the guys with the power.
previous |
next
|
Home |
Horoscope
ARIES
Just because you receive a few shocks and surprises and find life is not dealing you quite the hand you had expected, is no reason to panic. You have not been undermined by what occurs, it is simply that you have to re-examine what you are trying to achieve, the tests of time only can decide whether what you wish for is actually good for you. A group you belong to or associate with puts some pressures on you to move on in your life. With the Moon in Sagittarius going into your Solar ninth house of education and journeys you may have to revise your plans regarding schools or traveling today. Anything to do with publishing would be favored with this aspect as well. Avoid taking things too personally. Tonight be careful of overspending on pleasure. Focus on distance, ability to plan ahead. Accent philosophy, theology, publishing, advertising. You are going places. Scorpio helps in unraveling mystery.