Report Card Season

So here I am at end of term. Report cards are due on Monday because parent teacher conferences (my first solo ones) are happening on Friday, Dec. 2.

What am I doing on this four day weekend? Resting? Oh gosh no! I'm grading papers that will essentially make me have legitimate grades for report cards. Could I go off the cuff? According to some friends and colleagues, absolutely. I know how the kids are doing, after all. But ethically I can't. Because I know that I would feel horrible if I didn't have the proof that parents need to see and know that their kids are really doing (or not doing) the things they need to succeed in second grade. I'm tired. I am frazzled. I am going crazy. To top it all off I'm wondering about why I had to do progress reports a few weeks back and then now I have to do report cards. AGH!

And I just remembered that I have to have something in the kids' folders to show that I am not just making things up...but I'm going through this work and I'm honestly not sure what should stay and what should go. I am putting their start of the year assessments (DIBELS and Storytown Benchmarks that I haven't graded); some math assessments, their science tests. I suppose I should put some writing samples. Second grade writing is not that great. Please, I have seen college writing samples that aren't so great!

So please, pray for me as I go into this non-stop grading mode so that I can put the grades in correctly and promptly by Sunday (my personal deadline) - and know that I did get to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family and a bit of shopping with Daniel and Sam today.