Teaching is stressful

I just finished marking the History exam papers.

When I first saw the paper I thought it was reallllly difficult, even for me! They wrote the paper while I was cruising around Etosha, and when I returned there was a massive stack awaiting me and my red pen. Which, by the way, was empty from all the marking through the year.

I arranged myself at the dining room table where I could spread out, made tea and lined up my pink pen and my red pencil. I marked the first paper with the pink and the second with the pencil. Neither was satisfactory and the first two students did not even pass. This gave me an exceptional excuse to work avoid for another 24 hours.

Next day, Mom provided me with an excellent red pen; bright, roller ball, liquid gel, 0.5mm needle tip. I once again commandeered one end of the table and commenced. I marked all afternoon, with a pause for tea and another pause for washing. Some students passed, some even did quite well. After three hours I needed something else red. Red Wine, really gooood red wine. Delheim cabernet sauvignon shiraz. It was wonderful and I had to mark one of the students papers again today because after three glasses everything had taken on a pinkish tinge, and her 85% was generous from the bottom of the bottle.

This afternoon I marshalled my energy and necessary marking resources and finished the last of the lot. It took me a long time but now I am done and have reviewed their marks against homework marks and last term's marks to assess their progress or lack thereof. I don't need the better part of a bottle of red to induce the stress that this brings. Exams were always considered the ultimate test when I was at school. Teachers talked about them all term, and set them very carefully and as a teacher, I am no different. Except from this side you know that here is the way you will know whether you have got through to the students, whether the child who needed special attention got it, whether the child who always gets 90's with other teachers, gets them with you too, and many other nail-biting thoughts.

Thankfully it appears that most of those questions have been answered in the positive and I have to tell myself that for those that are negative, this is the information I need to adjust what I am doing with them. I also had a pleasant surprise on the last two papers. Students who always make the class average, this term have set the upper reaches of the marks.