I shouldn't have let myself do the math.
Feeling unappreciated and overworked today, I decided to crunch some numbers. I wanted to know how many hours I spend per month grading essays in the three sections of AP Language I teach and how that compares with the allotted amount of prep time I am given during that very same month.
Ack and alas! The results were not favorable.
In an average month, I receive six essays per student. I have 105 AP students. That's 630 essays per month that I read through, comment on, assign a grade to, and ultimately enter into my grading program.
Each of these essays is typically two pages long. That's 1260 pages. I'd estimate that it takes me about two minutes per page, conservatively, to grade for a total of 2520 minutes or 42 hours.
In that same average month, I receive 1.5 hours of prep time per day. Assuming a month is four school weeks long (which is what the above figures are based on as well) that's a total of 30 hours of prep time.
30 hours of prep - 42 hours of AP essays = -12 hours of time to do work
This figure doesn't include any prep for what I teach (planning lessons, copying, etc.), meetings I attend, the rest of the grading I do for AP (weekly vocab tests, grammar tests, in-class work, homework, etc.), or the other two classes I teach and grade work for.
No wonder I'm exhausted. No wonder I occasionally bite a kid's head off when she innocently asks me if I'll stay after school so she can take the two hour final she couldn't make it to. No wonder teachers tend to leave the profession after 3-5 years.
No wonder I hate math.
My mom only teaches elementary grades, and I always saw her come home with piles and piles of papers to grade every single night. "Most people get to be done with homework once they graduate from college," she would say with a big sigh. "Not teachers."
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why I never wanted to be a teacher.
So have fun grading papers tonight. I'm off to fold laundry. What exciting lives we lead.
I must agree with Jen...grading...blegh! At least each piece of homework you have to grade is new and unique. I've always thought the path of the english teacher was the best route to take teaching wise. You could be grading the same item over and over and over again. Don't know how math teachers do it.
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