Tag Archives: teenagers

Grading Papers

(Poem 358 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/wz0d0Y https://gencraft.ai/p/peMDKV

Grading papers is one of the least
loved responsibilities of most teachers
and certainly not a favorite pastime of mine.

It is probably one of the tasks I bid farewell
with the most glee when I retired from
teaching human beings and switched to AI.

Little did I know, I would be toiling over
their interpretations of various responses
to prompts, as I have for multiple decades,
and with much the same amount of enthusiasm.

I will say, I have not been spit at, called any names,
or felt the need to put an arm’s length of physical
space between us, just in case, when giving feedback.

But I still get attitude, excuses, attempts at humor
to deflect, shifting of blame, and half-hearted
apologies, occasionally, to keep me on my toes.

@Home Studio – 358th poem of the year

Inside Out 2

(Poem 221 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

Puberty ushers in such
comrades as Anxiety,
Envy, Embarrassment,
and my favorite, Ennui.
The panic that ensues
when Embarrassment
threatens and Envy
rears her unsettled self,
resurrects Fear and
Disgust, Anger and
Sadness, leading to
complete paralysis.
The only protection
against it all is to feign
Ennui…nothing matters
because too much
enthusiasm might be
the wrong amount, and
no one would dare be
too happy in a room
full of teens trying to
fake unruffled chill.

Rebekah Marshall @Home Studio on 8/19/24 @ 10:17am – 221st poem of the year (After watching Inside Out 2 with my granddaughter in theatre.)

Mann, Kelsey. Inside Out 2. Amy Poehler, Pixar Animation Studios, 14 June 2024.