With the end of the quarter soon approaching, teachers are increasingly stressed about grading assignments, while students suffer the consequences of last-minute grading.
The anxiety that results from hovering on the gradebook, waiting on edge for the grades of assignments given the previous month, creates negative impacts on their stress levels as students are left in a state of anxiety and worry.
Students, with their constant need to check their grades, feel a wave of disappointment upon noticing that their assignments from a month ago have yet to be graded.
“I feel like I always have [SIS] open because I’m checking to see if grades have been posted,” junior Annika Ryerson said.
According to a study conducted by Harvard Health, when someone is overcome with a consuming thought, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay focused, and leads to higher levels of stress and anxiety.
Additionally, when summative assessments such as quizzes, tests or essays aren’t graded soon enough, there will be a delay in retakes and students will have a harder time retaining the content.
“Assignments like essays are really difficult to retake,” Ryerson said. “By the time it’s graded, I’ve already forgotten everything about it, so I’m more likely to get an even worse grade.”
Furthermore, teachers are extremely busy with a massive influx of major assignments that weigh down their schedules and escalate their stress levels.
“We have a lot of other obligations along with teaching, from training, to meeting and planning,” English teacher Michael Enos said. “There are only so many hours in a day, so if I want to be teaching instead of grading during class, [that only leaves me with] like an hour a day.”
Similar to students, teachers are met with a myriad of commitments both in and outside of school, leaving them with little time to grade. While students may feel stressed about their grades, teachers experience more pressure grading students’ assignments.
To benefit both teachers and students, McLean should propose new policies to help solve the issues that arise from an increasing backlog of ungraded assignments.
It would be extremely helpful to teachers if McLean allowed seniors with a free period or interns to act as teacher assistants, helping teachers grade tests and assignments. This would relieve a significant amount of pressure from teachers as their workload is being lightened.
This leaves teachers with an increased amount of time to focus on assignments that require detailed feedback such as essays or projects.
The implementation of teacher assistants would benefit students, allowing students to have a clear understanding of where their grade stands, especially near the end of the quarter.
Through the implementation of assistants for teachers, grading will become more efficient and the stress and anxiety levels of both students and teachers will improve immensely.
