Leah asks:
I enjoy teaching but can’t stand grading. I find it demoralizing when students put in very little effort. Are there better ways to grade? Or should I consider a different career option?
It’s funny, I’m fine with grading when I’m not the one teaching (in fact, it is how I got spending money in college), but not so fine when it’s me they’re disappointing. Why didn’t they listen? Did I go wrong? Why don’t they care?
The ideal solution is to have someone else do the grading. TAs are the best. Especially when they tell you general areas in which students need more work. I don’t let them grade exams though, only homework.
And that costs $$.
Depending on what you’re doing, you can utilize multiple choice, or fill in the blank and so on and just not give partial credit. I don’t do that though because I feel like students should get partial credit?
You can have students grade each other if you’re careful about FERPA (numbers, not names on papers) and it’s things where there’s a correct answer, though in those cases you could just have the computer grade. :/
I dunno. Grading sucks.
Here’s some posts on grading motivation and pens.
Grumpy Nation, do you have better advice?