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| Three piles of Addmath books to be marked last week. |
Marking books. Many books. Piles of books. This has now become my weekly routine.
It's a hassle. Takes up a lot of time that could be otherwise spent on less meticulously boring things. But it has to be done.
Marking books is one way educators can get to see students' work on a particular subtopic individually.
Everything in the homework tells a bit about the student. The neatness of the handwriting, the systematic (or non-systematic) method of presentation, extra scribbles of notes on the side. You can also know if they copied from each other once you have marked enough number of books. You can tell if they have done the work lazily, meticulously, carefully, carelessly, stressfully, etc. The students reveal themselves to the teacher through their homeworks in more ways than they know. Even unfinished homework tells the teacher something about the student.
This is why I would never delegate this routine to anyone, not even when family members offer to help. The amount of info that I would otherwise gain would be lost should someone other than myself mark these books for me. Therefore even if it's a hassle and a meticulously boring load of work, I will always mark all my students' work.
So students, don't always be cursing your teachers when they give you a lot of homework or assignments. For they usually teach up to maybe 120 - 150 students every week. So for every homework one student submits, that's one homework to mark. Imagine doing 150 homework assignments every week. That's more than all the homework you do per month for all the subjects you take in school.
But I am not complaining though. Work is work, and I won't be doing this if I don't somehow enjoy it in some way or another.
Keep those books coming, guys! I can handle this!
