I love my job. I love being with students, and I love seeing them come to understand a difficult idea. I love seeing them share their thoughts and discuss important and meaningful questions (We discuss questions like what we can learn from nature and whether or not we should throw out our books. Thanks, Wordsworth for the thoughts. Most of us agree that nature is a wonderful teacher, but we aren’t going to get rid of our books yet. I’m thrilled at this conclusion because I do like my books!).
But I don’t love everything about my job—is there a job with absolutely nothing challenging? If there is, would it then cease to be fun? I think that the challenge is part of the fun. I ran into one of my students at the cafeteria today, and we ended up chatting together over dinner. She is busy studying for exams, and I mentioned that I also need to grade all of the homework that they just turned in.
Right now, I have a big stack of homework sitting under my elbow while I type. Grading homework is my least favorite part of teaching. I don’t enjoy bending over an assignment, trying to decide what grade it deserves. I assign a grade and then wonder if it’s too low. Then I grade the next one and wonder if it’s too high. Did I give out too many 100%s? Did I give out too few? I feel like grading is such a battle.
Grading essays are the hardest—especially if I’m trying to decide if a student used AI. Does this student really have that level of English? No, but they’re close. They probably used AI to perfect their grammar, right? But not to write the whole paper, surely? Now I usually require the students to report what they used AI for, but I still struggle with the AI battle. But I also try to remind myself that my students are also responsible for their own learning. If they aren’t going to do their own work, then it’s their loss. I can’t agonize over every sentence.
I’ve actually gotten quicker at grading students’ assignments, but it’s still a struggle at times—especially getting motivated to do the grading.
But today, as I was talking to my student, I realized that I used to really dislike lesson planning. But now lesson planning is kind of fun. I see it as a creative project, and I enjoy thinking up fun discussion questions or fun classroom activities. As I realized that this part of teaching that I used to dislike has become more enjoyable, I wondered if my perspective on grading also needs to change.
Maybe I hate grading because I have told myself so often that I hate grading that it is an endless cycle of dislike. I wonder what would happen if I told myself that I liked grading? Would I believe it? I might.
This semester, one of my goals was to give my students homework that was enjoyable to do and enjoyable to grade. I had them write an essay about a famous artwork that connected to one of the stories that we studied in European culture. Another assignment had them make a poster trying to convince me to commission them for one of their hobbies. I loved seeing their creativity with the posters, and I loved learning more about their hobbies. They love everything from finding good food to crocheting to playing sports to writing to music. I wanted the students to connect with the Renaissance concept of finding a patron.
A third assignment required them to choose a painting from one of the periods we had studied and then make a parody of that painting. I got this idea from Kendra, who first did it last year in her art class. The students said that they had fun making the parodies, and I have loved looking at their creative interpretations of different pieces of art. Many of my favorite ones chose paintings from realism and the struggles of people in that time and then copied the pictures with a struggle against studying. That is especially relevant for the students now as they get ready for finals.
I really enjoy reading the assignments, but I still struggle with the motivation for grading. Perhaps the struggle is more in what I’m telling myself. Perhaps by telling myself and others that I don’t like grading, I’m making this harder for myself. So I’m going to try something, I’m going to start by saying that I like grading (and I do enjoy grading these assignments). I like grading, and I’m going to get a head start on my grading now so that next week will not be so crazy.
Have you found that the way you talk to yourself affects your motivation to do hard things? What are some difficult things that you have to do, and how do you talk to yourself about those things? Do you think that this positive thinking can affect our motivation? I’d love to hear your thoughts!