Quite early in my career, I made the decision to ditch the traditional grading paradigm for the following reasons:
1. Nowhere in the fine print of my contract ... and I mean nowhere ... was an agreement stipulated that compelled me to accept countless hours of compulsory, unpaid overtime.
2. It occurred to me that no mater how much feedback I managed to squeeze into the margins of student drafts ... I wasn't witnessing much growth or maturation in their writing abilities despite my yeoman efforts.
3. In the traditional grading paradigm, the teacher does 99.9% of the heavy lifting, and common wisdom suggests, for real learning to occur, that the onus of learning must be placed squarely on the student's shoulder.
4. I wanted desperately to reclaim my evenings and weekends ... and ultimately ... to un-bury myself from the endless heap of essays that "needed" to be graded.
As such, over the course of my 20+ year career, I have invented countless alternative grading method programs.
In today's video, I walk teachers through a fun one modeled off the hit TV show - Shark Tank.
No joke - we got through two class stacks of essays (26 + 31 essays) in 70 minutes.
So, before you spend a single second this holiday season grading essays ...
Give yourself the gift of an alternative grading method.
There is an easier, softer way.
Happy holidays ... and here's to wishing you a bountiful 2024!
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