We had a staff development day today. As we all know, these often turn out to be rather painful experiences. You get all jazzed up thinking, "YAAY! A day with no kids!!"
and then....
WaBaam!
A mack truck known as ExerciseInFutility mows your optimistic butt DOWN.
I expected the same today.
I was pleasantly surprised.
We had an inservice over grading writing using rubrics. Granted, rubrics are not a new invention... but, as usual, Ms. H has been a little slow to join the RubricGame. She is now a believer.
One of my main sources of frustration (and guilt) is that I don't have time to closely grade every piece of writing the li'l darlin's turn in. I truly wish I did...but my appeal to get more minutes downloaded into my day has gone unanswered until this point.
I do believe a rubric might help me to communicate to the students how they have (or have not) met the expectations of the assignment. I'm willing to give it a shot, that's for darn sure.
I spent the afternoon developing a rubric to use for grading the daily journals I have the kids do. Hopefully it will turn the journal grading into a somewhat less painful process. Hopefully. I'll let you know.
On a sidenote...I am, in fact, hanging out at home while the rest of Uberschool is at the football game. I just wasn't "feelin" sitting in incredibly uncomfortable bleachers to watch my babies get their keisters handed to them. Again. It hurts. (So instead, I'm hanging out on my couch watching The Longest Yard. Much softer.)
That being said, I am looking FORRR-ward to gymnastics season starting in about a month. I'll get to see my kiddo in action...can't wait.
Which reminds me....The Bugg was given his fundraising packet Thursday for the gymnastics team (with only a week and a half to make his quota).
Guess who his first phone call was to? Yup. Me. Apparently, he remembered me telling his class last year "You better ask me quick...I only buy from the first kid who asks me."
It looks like I'm buying some candles.
Anybody need some stocking stuffers? (And if you're related to me, either by blood or by the sands-of-time, you can rest assured that I'll be emailing you a pdf of the order form as soon as I see Buggy).
Get out those checkbooks, folks!! Your Buggy needs you!!