Wednesday, October 12, 2005

My New Job

Hello. I started a new job today. It’s a temporary job grading ISTEP tests. The ISTEPs are standardized tests that are annually administered to all Hoosier students in grades three through ten. All sorts of things are (at times controversially) determined by the results of these tests, so they are pretty important. That’s why some testing company is paying some staffing agency to pay me to grade these things full time for the next month.

I have been assigned to the group responsible for grading the 9th grade writing section. I’m not sure why, exactly. We assign each student’s essay response two scores based upon criteria listed within The Rubric. The Rubric is the very important and very confidential (even though the test is over) book that tells my co-workers and me how to grade subjective responses as objectively as possible. I could go into more detail, but I’ve spent all day going over the damn thing, so some other time. I am considering beginning to evaluate Alice’s posts in this manner in order to hone my skills.

All the magic happens in a gigantic room filled with about 800 desks with computers. It’s like a huge Chinese internet café, except you can’t smoke, drink anything, or play Counterstrike. It’s located in a huge building that used to house a department store before all the people in the vicinity with money moved away. Poor suburban neighborhoods are pretty nice places to work, though, because there are plenty of fast food options for half-hour lunch breaks, and there’s plenty of parking.

My co-workers seem alright. The guy who sits next to me is involved somehow with one of those VoIP companies that has recently sprung up. We got to talking and he ended up giving me this DVD containing info about his company so I can see if I’m interested in applying for a position. According to him, they are planning expansion into China, but he was unaware of any of the developments described in this article. I told him I would print it out for him. Regardless, I’m going to check out the DVD, as it’s a rapidly expanding industry. I guess Terry Bradshaw makes an appearance on the disc, so that’s pretty cool.

More on my new job later. Good bye.

1 Comments:

Blogger goaskalice said...

how are you going to grade me?

9:46 PM  

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