I Hate Grading

It's the end of our first trimester. This week my students are taking the Constitution test which doubles as their final exam. Overall, students are doing well on it but not so much that it is dragging their cumulative grades down much. But I really dislike this part of my job.

Trying to sum up the achievement and proficiency of students can be a very easy or very difficult task. In math or science, there are very clear right and wrong answers. Not so in history. So much of what we do is subjective rather than objective. How do I determine if my students understand the Constitution or not? Does it really matter if they can't explain the 3rd Amendment?

Its not a question of passing or failing. Most students who fail my class do so because they simply don't do the work - makes my job easy. What is difficult is determining how well the others have performed in my class. Again, there are a handful of students who excel and distinguish themselves from their peers.

No, the difficult group are the ones right in the middle. What are the differences between B and C students? Sure I can assign point values to assignments and grade according to a scale and a rubric and some will have lower scores than others. On Friday though, I will be meeting parents and I have to explain why their student "earned" a certain grade. Some will be easy conversations but those in the middle, those I don't like having to justify.

I wish I had a better system.

New Car!

So its not exactly related to my teaching but I think its kind of cool anyway. Last weekend we went car shopping. There wasn't anything wrong with our old car ('03 Mitsubishi Lancer) its just that it was originally Sharon's car. Since she takes the L downtown to work and I drive now, I was just too uncomfortable driving it.

So we went to Carmax. We found a 2008 Suzuki SX4 with only 6,400 miles on it. Apparently it had been a fleet vehicle for Coca-Cola and when they closed the plant in Schaumberg, they sold the cars to Carmax. It's amazingly comfortable on the inside and I love driving it. Having a white car is not the ideal but we decided we could live with it.

Say hello to my new ride.

Things I Love About Lindblom III

Today so far has been a quirky day - one of many that I've had so far here. It started this morning with this exchange.

(Student opens door)
Student: "Hi Mr. Silva, do you have any eggs?"
Mr. Silva: "Eggs?"
Student: "Yeah eggs, you know, like from a chicken?"
Mr. Silva: "I know what eggs are thankyouverymuch and no, I don't have any eggs"
Student: (to another student in the hall) "He doesn't have any, let's ask Mr. Ray"
(Student exits)

Turns out the students were participating in a scavenger hunt for a project for their art class. Something about ordinary objects being used for abstract art or somesuch thing. The other quirky part of my day results from our mock presidential election.

Zack Linderman and Nate Diamond, a history teacher and an art teacher respectively, have been managing the school's mock election this year. We have fictitious candidates and so far all we have learned are names and posters with the name, slogan, and art. We don't know what the candidates look like at all, their political affiliation, etc. Until today that is.

As I was walking downstairs I noticed a new poster - one that said, "do you want a president who was a prostitute?" Turns out if the students achieve some goal in class, they are allowed to release negative ads against a competitor. In this case, Aryia the candidate apparently was a stripper some time ago and may have a criminal record.

The end result is that I have a new adjective to describe my school; quirky. The teachers here are so damn inventive its amazing. While other schools will hold traditional mock elections with inevitable results, we're trying to figure out who these candidates are and now waiting to see what will come next.

I absolutely love it.