daytona beach

i'm in florida grading AP exams right now.  i'm trying to find funny things to tell you about, but really my days are 8am-5pm, with breaks and lunch thrown in there, where all i do is read the exact same essay over and over again, scoring it and bubbling in the score on a scantron sheet i'm given.  kids write funny things occasionally, but i'm pretty sure i signed some sort of confidentiality agreement, so i can't tell you what those funny things are.  i will tell you the things i CAN tell you.

211,000 students took this exam this year.  each exam has four essay questions on it.  i am trained in only one of those questions, so three other people also look at each student's exam and assign a score for the essay they are trained in reading.  there are 600 readers here total.  i am not going to do the math to figure out how many exams my share is, because i'm pretty sure i don't want to know.

today i read 12 packs of 25 exams each.  i am keeping track because it helps me feel accomplished.  when you are grading your own students' essays, you know how many there are and you are working towards that goal.  here, when i finish a packet, i raise my hand and my new friend jim comes by and gives me a new packet.  I'M NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO WALK THE 10 FEET TO TURN IT IN AND GET A NEW ONE.  this is because that would waste time and be loud - chairs scraping, people walking, etc.  jim's job is to bring the 24 people in my section their new packets.  jim is approximately 70 years old and is my new BFF and says things to me like "we have to stop meeting like this" when he gives me a new packet.  i realize this might sound creepy, but it isn't.  it is some of my only human interaction before i'm grading again, so i laugh at his dumb jokes.  and i grade.  and i change positions in my seat (aka "squirm around").  and now grading is over for the day and i am free!  hooray!