English Teacher Doesn't Even Have to Read Them to Know These Essays Suck
Should Be a Pretty Easy Grading "Sesh"
A teacher at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Valparaiso, IN shouldn't have any trouble getting through her classes essays because just based on appearances, she knows these essays are going to suck.
She closed her eyes and felt the stack between her hand. She motioned weighing them, moving them up and down. These are going to be terrible.
"I've been doing this long enough to trust my instincts," she said.
"I've been doing this long enough to trust my instincts," she said.
Based upon her one-on-one conferences and rough drafts, she knows that most students didn't even do the reading. She knows to keep her expectations low.
Early on in her career she would jump through hoops and work overtime to strengthen her lesson plans and create opportunities for make-up work. But ultimately her efforts were futile: the kids just don't give a shit enough to even try.
Eventually she realized that all the extra effort isn't worth it.
She sighed. "Pretty much everything I teach to them is just way over their heads. Even when I was teaching the initial lessons during the unit, I could tell that the kids weren't going to get it...oh well," she disclosed while taking out her red pen.
The grading process should be pretty easy, then. There's one or two students who followed her formatting directions, so those students will get 100s. Then, there's a handful of kids who are generally good kids who try hard, and she'll scatter them with low A's and high B's.
A bunch of students who spelled their names right will get 85's, and for everyone else, well, hardly anyone will score above "Developing."
"I'll just toss them some low C's and a few D's. Based upon their effort given, the students will just be excited that they didn't fail," she said.
It might sound harsh and possibly a little unethical, but based upon her school's insane reteach policy, she'll be forced just to give them all passing scores eventually anyways.
She took a hit from her vape pen, putting her head down underneath her desk and exhaled before bringing her head back up. "Yeah, we would never get out of Unit 1 if I actually gave the students the grades that they deserved," she revealed. "If they play it cool, they'll all be on the Honor Roll by Quarter 3."
So do any of the parents contact you about their child's performance?
"The really annoying ones will email me constantly no matter what I give them. If they badger me enough early on, I'll keep throwing them 85s and say they "seem to be improving." This just makes things easy on everyone, because the parents deep down know their kids aren't putting forth any real effort."
She continued: "They play their part, and I'll play mine, but ultimately, they'll always get what they want."
A few minutes later, the grading was done. Nice, just in time for Happy Hour at Chili's.