If you’re a teacher, you’ve been through 4 years of university, if not 5 to 8 years. In other words, you’re a professional. Sadly, many teachers do not conduct themselves like the professionals that they are. They should. And when you think of how true professionals treat their time, it’s like gold, and the bills they issue to their customers reflect that. You should too.
This post is not just about marking once a week. It’s about treating your time like a professional. It’s about setting appointments with yourself so work doesn’t seep into your personal life. It’s about getting things done quickly and effectively … like a renowned lawyer, accountant, doctor, or executive would.
be your own secretary
When I think of how much time most teachers waste in a given week, it really baffles me. But the mental energy wasted is even more baffling. I really think a lot of it stems from mismanaging our non-classroom time.
This year, start viewing yourself as the professional you are and treat your time accordingly. No, you won’t have your own secretary. Instead, be your own. Seriously, for 30 minutes a week, imagine that you are your own secretary, one that’s looking for a really big promotion.
When you slip into your personal secretary mode, your job is to think of two things: managing your boss’s time and delegating his low-priority tasks.
1. TIME MANAGEMENT
manage your time like a professional
Step back and view your hours and days like highly-coveted time slots that require scheduling. Remember, only one thing can be done at a time, so if you want ‘your boss’ to get things done, you’ll need to make ‘appointments’ for each task item.
One of those task items will be marking. Your boss hates marking. He doesn’t like interruptions when he does it. You know he can never get it done when he tries marking in front of the TV. You know that he never gets it done when he’s tired because he always complains about it to you (and you hate hearing about it). And you know that it takes him 2-6 hours to do.
So, at the start of the week, do the following for your boss.
- Collect an inventory of how much stuff needs to be marked by next week
- Delegate or delay low-priority marking tasks (see below)
- Determine how long it will take to mark high-priority tasks
- Look at your weekly calendar and identify free time slots
- Select one day – and one day only – where there’s enough free time to get the marking done
- Ensure a good chunk of that time occurs when your boss’s energy levels are high
- Select a location where few – if any – interruptions will occur. That means picking a time when your boss won’t get interrupted by Larry from the classroom – I mean office – next door.
- Tell your boss that this appointment is urgent and he should get in top shape for it.
- And when your boss grumbles about it, remind him that if he doesn’t finish the task in this appointment, it’s going to nag and nag and nag at him until it does. So he needs to just get it done.
2. TASK DELEGATION
There are only so many hours in a week and only so much can get done. As the world’s best secretary, you know this oh-too-well. And your boss (remember, that’s you) works for an underfunded and under-resourced company that always expects more from him that he could ever deliver on his own. He needs help. He needs you to delegate the low-priority tasks to those under him. And those people are his students.
In this case, it’s determining what he – the chief executive teacher – has to mark, and what items could be marked by his students. You know your boss has some control issues and sometimes thinks that he has to do all of the marking on his own. That means you – his secretary – must make these decisions for him.
You need to delegate as many low-priority marking tasks to one of three people/groups:
- the class (i.e. mark as a class)
- the student (i.e. self-evaluation)
- a peer (i.e. peer evaluation)
Seriously, do you know how much learning, meta-cognition and discussion opportunities occur in class, self, or peer marking activities? Tons! So utilize them and don’t think you – I mean your boss – have to mark everything! Especially you, English/literature teachers!
And if your boss protests about the impossibility of marking only once a week, remind him of a couple of things:
- marking is but one of many, many jobs a teacher has to do, so it should only occupy a fraction of your professional time
- you do (believe it or not) have a personal life for which you should also reserve time for
- you don’t have to be a superhero, you can only do so much, and no one’s going to give you a trophy for doing extra marking
- in fact, doing extra marking likely won’t make a difference … because
- it’s not as important who marks the student work as much as whether it gets checked for completion, because
- what gets measured gets done, so delegate the measurements (i.e. marking) to ensure higher frequency, and
- select key, unit-ending pieces of work that really demonstrate student performance and understanding to mark, and delegate the rest to the class, the student, or peers.
So, Sanity Saver #3 for the upcoming school year is …
Mark One Day a Week, Max!
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The results, no joke, were incredible. It was like the difference between the ice at the beginning of a hockey game just after the ice has been cleaned and the players jump on the ice all excited to get started, 
But they soooo didn’t. With the exception of a couple of sweet, ESL female students who always worked hard, as soon as we finished our last book, my students’ checked out.
Then there’s the fact that we teachers often have to work with a clientele that doesn’t want to work with us, or with helicopter parents who have no problems telling you how you should be teaching and grading their son or daughter differently. Oh, I almost forgot the marking, calls home, attendance and late slips, coaching, and after-school time for extra-help and make-up assignments.
