I woke up today at 8:00 AM, cycled to the math department to pick up two classes worth of assignments, and cycled back.
Then I locked my door. Made coffee. Porridge with the hot water from my tap.
And began to mark.
It’s not like marking high school math, of course.
I have to do the questions myself. They’re long. Intense. Computational and demanding. I have to do them because marking others means you have to know the intricacies of the problem. That takes about 2 hours. Sometimes 3.
Each assignment has 6 problems. Sometimes, more than 10 pages. With 20 assignments, and 3 minutes of concentrated marking per question, that’s 6 hours. Of course, more time is needed if I can’t read someone’s writing, or if someone takes a shortcut or detour.
You can’t just check the answer. You have to go through their work. Sometimes line by line. Formula by formula. Variable by variable.
By now, we’re over 8 hours.
Add an hour for pee breaks, coffee breaks, and breaks for when your mind just gives up.
11 hours ago, I was a different man.
It has to be done by tomorrow, of course. When the assignments are handed back, and the solutions presented to the students.
So I add another 2 hours of lecture preparation time.
You want to know what happened to my Monday?
That’s what happened to my Monday.
Michelle says,
Phil, teachers like yourself are very rare, yet in huge demand.
Dave says,
Jesus…I woke up at 2pm yesterday, brushed my teeth, had some leftover pizza and started playing video games with Sat and Neil online….
Nishant says,
Wow Phil, it’s almost like you’ve screwed yourself over like this before. No wait…it’s exactly like that.
Anyways, good luck with the stuff.
Dan says,
I’m a bit behind on my Phil’s Proof readings but I must say the previous article made for a good laugh.