Dun, dun, dun, dun.... ESSAY GRADING!

Apparently, essay grading is worse than being chased by a shark in the middle of the ocean. Apparently, it is the demon spawn of all that is unholy and it will eat my life and I will be sucked into a vortex of bad grammar and word vomit and death and carnage. Or at least that's how my mentor teacher is making it sound.

This week, our unit on Tartuffe is coming to an end, and I’m starting to feel a sense of the overwhelming nature of ending one unit and starting another. I am doing the unit on A Tale of Two Cities on my own, and trying to figure out how to do it is freaking me out a little bit. On top of that, I am about to have essays to grade: On Friday (continuing on Monday for our third group), we had our first big exam with the sophomores, their test on Tartuffe. The test included an essay portion (done in class). This will be my first real experience grading essays – about 100 essays, no less. My mentor teacher has been pretty much putting “the fear of God” into me about how terrible and time-consuming essay grading is, on top of starting a new unit and everything else I have to do. I’m pretty nervous about it as well because this will be the first time that my essay grading will really matter and count (I helped mentor teachers in my internships, etc. but didn't do the full experience). I’m nervous because I know how Mr. M grades (he’s tough, and he’s smart), and I’m worried I won’t be tough enough or won’t measure up. We are figuring out the best way to have me do this – what we decided on is that he would grade one batch this past weekend, and tomorrow we will look over and discuss the ones he graded, and I will grade the rest on my own using his as examples. I am still nervous but at least I have support and I will figure it out.

And I haven't yet had any nightmares about demon essays chasing me down endless halls of devastating gloom and sadness. But there's still time yet.