Slice of Life March Challenge #21

Tonight I've decided to tackle grading the papers that I've been putting off for some time now.  They have to get back to the kids. I have to get them off my mind, too.

But for some reason, I feel like my pile of papers is only growing by the minute, not shrinking like I'd hoped.  So much of what I'm grading is writing intensive, and it seems like it's never ending reading and commenting and responding.  It just takes me forever.

I have a stack of feature articles to finish, reading journals to grade, personal essays to look through...and other assignments coming in at the end of the week to be graded too...no!!

Even though grading can sometimes make me grouchy, I usually stumble across something a student wrote that's really sweet and makes me smile or something ridiculous that makes me laugh.

I love the comments in their reading journals like, "I love the book I'm reading right now!! You should read it too! Thanks for reading my letter. I hope you enjoyed it reading because I sure enjoyed writing it!"  These types of comments make me smile and also make me realize that my sixth graders are slick--they know just what to say to win their teacher over! :)

And then you find some very important notes that are wedged in between a reading entry or two, clearly written during class, like this...

which actually make me laugh.  Figuring out who is going to your sleepover and what games you're going to play is way more important than anything we're learning right now--well, at least to a sixth grader.

Well, I'm off to power through my grading and find even more interesting things that are hidden among the piles.  I'm sure I'll have a laugh or two tonight, at least!