Sunday, May 20, 2012

Man Marking

It's that time of year when I take a break from finding out what my students have to say for themselves and peruse the musings of a selection of other teachers' students from around the world on the May papers they have attempted. This is not a happy time.

I've survived the first serious day of marking and am reasonably compos mentis, I suppose, but to describe myself as thought-tormented would be an understatement. Some candidates seem to wilfully delight in not addressing what they've been asked to address, and not knowing what you'd think might be alarmingly obvious after two years of study, which would be funny if it were not for the fact that one has to accurately assess the degree to which they've fallen short, and there are many headache-inducing variations of degree, believe me.

I suppose it's heartening to think that there're always likely to be jobs for teachers given the remarkable inability of some kids to learn anything.

No comments: