September’s a tough month. Back when Ruth and I were teaching, she hated September because she hated going back to school. She was good at her job, but she didn’t love it. She liked the kid part but not the paper part. The longer she taught, the more paper there was.
One year, about two-thirds of the way through her time at Adrian High School, she reduced her paperwork a ton when she let her students’ grade themselves. Students and teachers used rubrics back then. I don’t know if they’re used today, but they were the holy grail at Adrian High for a few years.
If you look the word up, you’ll find “a rubric is a scoring tool used to assess student work by clearly outlining performance criteria and describing what each level of achievement looks like for those criteria. Rubrics help students grasp expectations and boost their performance. They can be used for essays, projects, presentations, class participation, and other assignments.”
Ruth spent an entire summer working on hers. Not every day, all day, but she poured her heart and soul into it. She wanted it done right so she wouldn’t have to redo it. Just before heading back to school, she decided her students should use what she’d written to evaluate themselves. And they did. When she spot-checked their evaluations, she found many were tougher on themselves than she would have been.
I don’t know why I’m remembering that today, but September reminds me of how and where we met. I remember, too, that had she lived we’d be married fifty-five years on Friday. Instead, she died at the fifty-one years and sixteen days mark. That date’s on the horizon as well. She’ll be gone four years on the twenty-seventh. Those two anniversaries make September a tough month.
When I was growing up, I thought of anniversaries as happy times. Days to be celebrated. I’m a fan of the together times but not the leaving. Saying good-bye is tough. I don’t want to wish my life away, but I can’t wait until the end of the month.
💔 🙏