Grading

Abstract

I don’t know about you, but just seeing that word—grading—triggers a stress response: my shoulder muscles tense up, my breath catches in my throat, my heart races. Although my students submit their papers electronically now, the word still evokes some past nightmare image of mile-high piles of stapled essays tottering above me. “Grading” ruins weekends and curtails vacations. “Grading” is the reason we sit at our computers on sunny days while everyone else gets to play outside.