Often students may question, “why is this assignment still not updated?” or… “why is this teacher taking so long to grade?” Some people find themselves obsessively staring at their grade in a certain classes, wondering if it will go up or not because of that assignment you turned in 3 weeks late. Sometimes we see ourselves looking for the assignment you turned in 14 seconds ago in the Home Access Center and come to your teacher and complain about it not being “in yet.”

Grades are important, and people often get emotionally attached to the numbers on their screen. So, when they don’t see something that they turned in updated on HAC, they sometimes get anxious.  

Something that a lot of students have complained about or have talked about is– what’s taking so long to grade things?  

Well, we’ve come to find out by asking a few teachers during their free period. Mr. Joshua Weeks, a science teacher at Bel Air High School, says that he’s pretty good at putting in grades and grading things. He said he grades about twice a week. Even though he stays on top of grading, things like essays and lab reports may take a while longer than just a regular assignment. More effort is required to properly grade things like that, yes? No?  

Miss Emily Zorbach, an English teacher at Bel Air, said that she’s pretty good at putting in grades and that she always gets them done. However, since a quarter just ended, she must read through a bunch of essays and grade them all while giving them feedback on their essays that she can only hope that the students will read.  

Those were just two examples, but most teachers talk about how time-consuming grading can be, which can be troublesome, especially with people who have kids and have a family. A lot of teachers have 80+ students in a current year. 80+ of one assignment!

Something another teacher complained about is that often students turn in work really late. While teachers are busy grading grades that haven’t been put in yet, some students turn in work really late, which can throw off the teacher’s plans.

The students that complain about this assignment that was turned in a whole 2 months late are the same students that complain about the teacher not putting grades in, from what I’ve seen. Turning in late work may boost your grade, but a lot of people stockpile a bunch of late work and give it to your teacher and expect your grade to be updated immediately.  

These teachers don’t get notified when you turn in work that was already due centuries ago, so chillax! Also, a lot of times people don’t notify their teachers when they turn something in late. So, as result, your stuff won’t be put in immediately.  

Instead of preying on your teachers to put in grades and things of that nature, just be patient.  

At the same time, I’m not going to sit here and say teachers never make mistakes. They do. If you see something is not right and you see something in HAC that says it’s not handed in, then talk to your teacher. Respectfully. Don’t bombard them with questions and ask the same thing every day. “When will you put this in?” “Is this graded yet?” “What’s taking so long?”  

Moral of the story, stop salivating and obsessing over numbers. Just wait.