When to Use KMN

I'm in Marking Land today. I decided that I could no longer procrastinate. What I discovered was that I was right to procrastinate.

I marked a lot of what essentially amounts to busy work, and wasn't all that surprised by the results. They were what I was expecting. I moved through those activities relatively quickly. Once I finished those, I got to the assignments that were actually significant. I have a geography test, a science test and an essay left to mark. Because I was tired, I decided to tackle the science test first. That one has definite answers.

Yeah. It's called quitting while you're ahead for a reason. I'm over halfway through the class and the highest grade so far is 78%. The next highest is 69%. By the way, that represents two kids, not several kids with those grades. Just two. I think the average right now is hovering somewhere around 42%. And that's a high estimate. Depressing to grade but also... baffling.

I'm not trying to be that teacher that comes up with the really hard test just to fail everyone. Do I get credit for doing it by accident? I got the material straight from my notes, meaning from what I taught, meaning from their notes. I gave them a cheat sheet on which I practically gave them the test. They had two days to finish it and ask me questions. Most of them did it on their lunch hour before the test. And I was there! They could have asked me questions!

The more I look at that test, the more I'm convinced that they should have been able to handle it. It's not an easy test, but I don't think it's as difficult as their results are indicating. This leaves me with one conclusion. They don't take me seriously which really isn't going to pay off for them. My sister thinks my conclusion is the most likely. I'm a little upset by that but really, I'm only there six weeks. That's not a whole lot of time to get to know me and get to know what I expect. Guess they'll find out Monday.

On the bright side! I solved the mystery of the missing science sheet! It's been bugging me since Friday. Basically, this girl who always hands in her work seemingly hadn't handed in her work. I asked her about it and we both spent Friday turning things upside down to find it. I knew she wasn't lying. Finally, when I got to grading, I saw that one kid had written two assignments. One he did not do well on, the other he did extremely well on. Well... WTF? I have a hard time getting one assignment from him, let alone two. Curious. I got the bright idea to pull out one of the girl's other assignments to compare the handwriting. Yes, I am that CSI about these things. My microscope remained in the basement, but the results were pretty clear. After a quick fingerprint and DNA analysis to confirm, I was positive.  My little overachiever had written his name on her sheet.

It could be an honest mistake... I'm not entirely sure how, but I'm willing to give him the chance to explain himself. I had to sit through my AT's "This is what happens when you bring assignments home" speech three times. He will explain himself.

And that's the kind of day it's been in Marking Land. In the words of Big Bang Theory's most clever writers: KMN.

Lauren.