ode to the joy of grading.

I’ve tried unsuccessfully to write an entry for three days now. I just couldn’t do it when I actually sat down before the computer.

Now I can.

I think I am sufficiently irritated enough to vent out some sort of a disorganized entry.

Right now all I want to do is go find some of my 10th graders and chase them around with a copy of a MLA book which then I could use to beat them over the head with. Maybe it would knock some sense into them. Maybe, perhaps, they would actually comprehend how to do a citation!

Research. All my classes had to do it. The honors class turned in beautifully written papers. The 10th graders…some did. Others obviously made no changes to their papers. I remember in detail talking with some of them, explaining the process of doing a citation, asking several times “do you understand?” Showing examples out outline. Hm. Little good it did. I got papers from kids who obviously just wanted to hand in something, didn’t really care. And I thought. Why am I spending about 10-15 minutes grading and proofreading papers of kids who don’t care? If they don’t care enough to follow instructions, why am I giving myself a headache trying to grade their…ummm..c.r.a.p.? Because that’s all it is.

And there.

I don’t even feel horrible for writing it.

Maybe now I can actually go back and sit down at the kitchen table and proceed to grade the rest of the papers.

Nothing too exciting has been happening here other than that. This was the first Thanksgiving I spent away from my family. I was more upset about that than I thought I would be originally. I’m used to a Thanksgiving with tons of relatives around, the complete dinner. Not a Thanksgiving spent alone with a boyfriend in a small town. Oddly enough, I wouldn’t change much about it though.

Yesterday I did get to spend time with my parents and my sister and promised to come home and visit on the day that I take R. to the airport to fly home. I am very much looking forward to Christmas this year.

The more I think of it, growing up I got to experience Thanksgiving every day. I had the type of family where my mom knew where I was every second, sitting down together every night for dinner was a requirement, a C on a report card was not allowed..that’s just the way things were. I miss that at times. But I had 23 years of that.

Yesterday we decorated here for Christmas. R. and I put up our tree. It’s nice to have a Christmas tree in the living room. It makes things seem more “homey.” And it was nice to do something Christmasy with him.

Until tomorrow.