Stress Reliever Tip: Get ready to MARK

♦ June 21, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

One thing your Faculty of Education classes won’t  prepare you for is ..evaluating your students… otherwise known as MARKING. However for the majority of student teachers, the reality is that you will have to do at least some marking during your placements and for most this reality …sucks.

So my main message for today is that it is extremely important that a Student Teacher does a good job of managing their marking load. This management will do much to reduce Student Teacher Stress stress level.

Just in case you weren’t convinced yet here are some more specific reasons to manage your marking load:

  • Marking often takes a long time to complete
  • The Mentor Teacher often needs it by a certain time i.e. report cards
  • It is VERY easy to make mistakes… especially if you are new to marking

How can Student Teachers successfully manage their marking load?

Here is a short list of SOME practical tips to help manage the load. You may notice that some of these tips are right inline with one of my previous posts Stress Reliever Tip: Communication with Mentor Teacher.

  • “Don’t bite off more than you chew” and be honest about how much you do and when you can finish by.
  • Ask your mentor teacher if they can mark some WITH you and explain what they are looking for from the students and perhaps provide you with an answer key
  • Start early (right away)
  • Ask your mentor teacher for HELP i.e questions when you are unsure how to mark something, or asking the mentor teacher to help you do some
  • Mark in chunks. Don’t try and mark everything in one shot chances are you won’t do as good of a job on the last few as you did on the first few.
  • If you don’t think you can finish at the agreed upon time let your Mentor Teacher know ASAP! Although your Mentor Teacher is likely to be upset at least in this way, the two of you can make a solid plan for getting it done.

I understand that many want to make a good impression but “biting off more than you can chew” and then drowning under the load is NOT going to make a good impression on your mentor. So manage well everyone!

Leave a comment