Happiness Journal 5/8/25

Could have gone home earlier today, but stayed on to assess my fifth graders’ audio responses that they had earlier submitted. As you might expect, most of them didn’t take it seriously and left me fighting off the snooze monster with their half-hearted responses. But their lackluster attitude left barely a dent in my exemplary professionalism, so I managed to leave school today, having listened to and marked 30 students’ work.

As tedious as marking was, I’m glad that the oral component now comprises a higher composition (20%) of their final grade. It prompted me to notice the sparks of brilliance among these children. One boy must be particularly conscious about time, as seen by how he not only used “in the near future”, but uttered “in the long run”. Another boy dazzled me with how mature he came across via sound waves. He repeated “The reason why I’m interested…”sensibly, a far cry from the animated and clownish expressions he pulls off in class to get my attention. A girl, who has been giving me lotsa grief about homework, finally made me smile by illustrating how other people might gravitate towards martial arts, but not her.