Scrolling through Facebook
Checking my phone
Putting on a load of laundry
Restocking paper products in the bathroom
Counting the number of papers I have to grade
Searching for the right pen to begin the job
Taking a snack break
Scrolling through Facebook
Checking my phone
Moving some stacks of books to a different room
Picking out an outfit for tomorrow
Scrolling through Facebook
Checking my phone
Organizing the papers into separate stacks
Scrolling through Facebook
Checking my phone
Taking the dog out
Seeing what the cats are up to
Reordering the papers into different separate stacks
Taking photos of the cats
Refilling pet water bowls
Scrolling through Facebook
Checking my phone
Finding a better pen to begin the job
Cleaning the stove
Scrolling through Facebook
Checking my phone
the dirigible plum 
14 responses to “What I’m Doing Instead of Commenting on Student Papers: Slice of Life 20/31 #sol17”
Ha! I loved the repetition of your poem. It definitely feels like that when you are procrastinating on grading students’ writing. I can relate. It sounds like you were otherwise productive!
It’s amazing what boring tasks suddenly seem interesting to me when I’m supposed to be commenting on student papers. I mean, cleaning the stove?! Really?!
Ha! I love this! I’m totally stealing this for today.
Pretty sure I could write a version of this every week because I am ALWAYS putting off commenting on student papers or blogs!
Love this. I could totally add “Commenting on Slices!”
I did plenty of that over the weekend too! Should have been commenting on papers. Instead commented on 60 slices!
Facebook and phones, what did we ever do to distract ourselves without them?! When I was reading your poem, I felt a little bit like was scrolling through a feed, and just waiting for those words to pop up again.
I don’t know! If I’m going to procrastinate, I wish I’d do something more valuable with my time than scroll through Facebook or check my phone!
I love this. I totally could’ve written something like this when I was writing report card comments. Saving this structure for a future post!
The struggle is real! Glad I’m not the only one!
I spent tonight not grading papers, so I could totally relate to this. And I also count papers that need grading and wonder why, why, WHY I do it. I mean, seriously. WHY?
Isn’t it so mysterious? I separate mine into little stacks. Stacks of hope, I call them, because I calculate how many papers I need to grade each day to get them back to students on a designated day. And once I make the little stacks of 4, 5, 10, then I promptly get up and do something else. Because hey, I counted out stacks! Surely I’ve done my work for today?
Stacks of hope is brilliant. Why did I never think of this? And, yes, separating into stacks gets you once step closer so it totally counts as work.
Hmm, it’s like you’ve been in my house. 😊 Love the repetition here.