Leaving Work at Work

With only 24 more school days remaining this year (but who is counting, right?), I find myself once again with mounds of work piled on my desk.

Tis the season of research papers. I collected the rough drafts of the papers last Thursday and started them over the weekend. In two hours, I read and commented on 10 papers. Of those 10, only two have some minor plagiarism issues. It seems no matter how hard I try to explain plagiarism, it is so difficult for students to understand the concept of paraphrasing. They want to change one word in the sentence and call it their own words.

Today I graded 10 more papers. Unfortunately, of those, three were majorly plagiarized, so much so that I will have to hand them back and have them redo.

4 hours of work, 20 papers down. Only 30 more to go (for this round). And I am hoping to get them finished by Friday when the next round comes in.

Yet, in the midst of all this grading, I can't help but think how far I have come since my first year of teaching (since last year, even). This is the first time since February that I have brought work home with me. I have been making great effort to do all my work at school, even if it means staying a couple hours after school once or twice a week. Even with the research papers, I have been taking them to a coffee shop to grade. It's not that they go more quickly, but it helps keep me on task so I don't take too many breaks in between reaching my daily quota.

And the biggest benefit of all: I am able to leave my work outside my house. It feels good to come home and be home, not to have work hanging over my head at all hours of the evening.

...Five years later, but hey, it's progress!