The Week That Was

I worked fulltime last week; it was a contract job to grade the portions of the Colorado standardized achievement test that could not be scored by computer. My group of 15 were scoring 3rd grade math. In retrospect, I was very pleased with my ability to hear and very disgusted with the work itself. Let me explain . . .

Picture an open space about the size of a football field. Fill the area with hundreds of waist-high cubicles each equipped with one computer and one chair. Position 2 trainers for every 10-15 people and you have an idea of the job setting. The first day was training day which meant that a team leader gave us instructions on the scoring criteria through the use of headphones.

The positives?

• The job is over.
• I got paid.
• I could hear to do the job. This is no small thing, given the room size, acoustics, and verbal exchange on both sides of my cubicle. This would have been a near impossible hearing assignment with only one implant. My older C1 has a battery life of just over 3 hours these days, so I'd have been dead-in-the-water and missing the training while removing the headphones to change my battery.
• We were permitted to use our cellphones at the lunch break. I could hear Gerry well using either ear.

The negatives?

• My ears were really sore after training day. The headphones were the small earsize type with very little padding. Oh, my aching earhooks!
• The task was an exercise in sheer monotony. Each day my computer was programmed to evaluate one test item, awarding each student a score of 0, 1, or 2 at my "click". The same question, again and again and again. On Friday alone, I scored a whopping 2,121 entries. Talk about tedious, fanny-fatiguing utter boredom!! Years ago, Gerry and I took a tour of a pretzel factory and came away feeling sorry for those poor souls. I told Gerry after the second day that I'd be happy to twist dough tomorrow!
• Too many third graders have horrid penmanship. Don't teachers model how to use an eraser these days? I couldn't believe that what I was seeing was each child's best effort. No wonder the USA's educational ranking in the world is slipping fast.