Shannon Costello

The toughest problems are the real life ones. Prices are not even dollar amounts. You must take friction into account. Resources are sharply limited.

Sometimes I am slow to realize the problem exists. This year I have identified one of the trickiest teacher problems: checking homework. Homework that is assigned must be checked, or it will not be done. The question is, how?

On one end of the homework-checking spectrum, the teacher collects the homework, reads every word of every assignment carefully, and gives the work a merit-based grade. The teacher then enters the grade. (Sometimes I first enter the grade in a temporary, paper grade-book before putting it into the official computerized grade book, but this is inefficient.) The faster the assignment is returned to the class, the better they will learn from their mistakes.

It is hard to know exactly how long this process takes. Spanish assignments are not lengthy at this level. Let’s guess one minute per assignment, which works out to about 25 minutes per class, or 75 minutes per day. My planning time is 90 minutes long, making this option unsuitable for everyday wear, though it is good for the students to get the feedback.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the teacher checks the assignment in class without collecting it, giving every assignment a completion grade. During this time students are completing a warm-up exercise. In this case, one must write a mark on a paper grade-book, but the whole set of marks may be quickly and easily translated into the computer grade-book. Between general classroom management and the temptation to actually read the assignment (what kind of message does it send if I don’t read the assignment?), this process can take 15-20 minutes out of a 90 minute class. This is a terribly inefficient use of class time. Often the warm-up is not long enough (poor planning) and students are beginning to chatter by the time I am done.

Of course I ought to and do vary my approach. I should occasionally collect and seriously correct assignments. But I should check during class with discipline — very quick glances. But it might be better to make a habit of carefully scrutinizing at least one assignment by at least one random student per class. This would allow me to see more work and give students some extra accountability, since it would not be known in advance whose work I would scrutinize.

I’m not even convinced that is the perfect solution. If only spot-checking didn’t take so long! Instant feed-back is a beautiful thing.

The Maryland State Department of Education has the exact same problem, only there the “homework” is teacher certification. Once a teacher is certified, there are maintenance requirements in the form of master’s degrees and extra classes.

The department has not properly outlined a strategy for dealing with the homework problem. They are in essence collecting and checking everything, which means they are swamped. Perhaps a result of this is that it is extremely difficult to learn exactly what the certification requirements are for an individual teacher in a specific situation. I joke that the state certification specialists can only be reached only on the third Tuesday of even numbered months when the moon is full and between the hours of 9:00 and 9:30 am, when, of course, every teacher is teaching. A second problem is that paperwork is very, very slow. I have heard of teachers waiting so long for a copy of their teaching certificate that it was already expired when it arrived.

I am not quite sure what should be done about this. I get rather angry and frustrated when I think of the state education department. On the other hand, they do have the same problems I experience in my classroom, so perhaps a little understanding is in order. Besides, I love teaching, so of course I will do what it takes to remain a teacher. I may as well try to think of them a little more mercifully, which might slow down my rapid transition into a complete cynic.

And I will keep working on the problem from my end, in my classroom. Oh, sorry. Classrooms.