Good Teacher, Bad Housewife

I'm a good friend, good teacher, good family member - but one thing I know I'm not good at is housekeeping.

I don't like to clean. I like a clean house - but I'm bad at keeping it that way. I know this about myself - I have embraced it as one of my faults.

But today while I have the ability to have the house to myself my plan is to attack the laundry situation. I don't mind putting laundry in the machine - it's the folding that I don't like.

I guess this goes back to why I don't like grading. It's the teaching I love - if only I didn't have to give grades.

I would love to try the following experiment.

- teach all semester - assigning homework and essays but let students grade their own work. Give plenty of rubrics and make sure they understood what was expected of them. and at the end of the semester allow them to give themselves a grade. I would be willing to bed that there would be some kids who would give themselves an A no matter what - and there are the other kids who would give themselves a grade lower than what they really should have gotten. But I think for the most part kids would give themselves the grade that the deserve. I hate that there are so many kids who ask the question "what can I do to raise my grade" but they never ask "what can I do to learn more"

And isn't it the learning we should all be worried about. That's why I got into this field - not to give grades but to help kids learn.

But like all things in life if you are going to have the fun - there are the responsibilities that go with it.