Magical Quills (Was: Teachers' workload)

[theultimatesen]

No: HPFGUIDX 87024

> Carol: 
> Having been a teacher myself, I'd like to think that the Hogwarts
> teachers have magical quills (especially if they're looking at
> anything beyond the content and complexity of the answer--clarity of
> expression, for example--though I doubt that they are), but I see no
> evidence of it. Snape looks at a paper assigned by Lupin that 
received
> eight points and states, "I wouldn't have given it three" (in PoA
> somewhere, quoted from memory). Either his magic quill marks the 
paper
> exactly as he would have done, not just the mark/grade but the
> comments, and he somehow knows what each paper received, or he goes
> through the papers very quickly and marks only the points or the 
grade
> received without comments. Otherwise, there's no way that he could
> keep up with the workload *and* know how well each student is doing.
> One thing that does help, though, is that he and the other teachers
> don't teach every class every day. Most of them appear to meet 
twice a
> week. Let's say that Mondays through Thursdays are divided among his
> first through fifth year students and Fridays are devoted to his 
sixth
> and seventh year NEWT classes. If the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs 
have
> double Potions like the Gryffindors and Slytherins, that would be
> about five classes per day (except Fridays) and about forty to sixty
> papers to mark every night (assuming twenty students per double
> class). If I were Snape, I'd have to brew myself a potion to keep me
> awake and mentally alert! And the grades also have to be recorded so
> they can be averaged at end of term--definitely a job for a magical
> quill if he has one, but again, I see no indication that he does. He
> and McGonagall, who is twice his age, seem to have prodigious 
energy,
> so maybe they can manage to mark all that homework without stay-
awake
> potions or magical quills--but only with a school population of 280
> rather than 1,000 students. Rowling as a former teacher would know 
the
> limitations for a Muggle teacher. I don't think they'd be all that
> different for a Witch or Wizard. Even Snape and McGonagall would 
have
> their limits. Maybe overwork is part of the reason that Snape is so
> hard on his students! :-)


Me:

I do believe they have the type of classes you mentioned. For some 
reason I remember something vaguely like it when they were going over 
schedules with each other. I don't have my books anywhere near me. No 
clue where my husband hid them. I do know I'm getting the 5 book set 
for Christmas from Santa. Ok I'm rambling now. ANYHOW! I think the 
quills may be useful to a point, but who's to say the Profs don't use 
time turners to help them keep up with things (making out lessons, 
grading, other Prof duties), get their rest, do their "patroling" of 
the halls and STILL stay sane. Not to mention we see them at Quiddich 
matches and we've seen them in their night clothes. They obviously 
have free time and sleep. Then again, if they're on a MWF type of 
schedule then their assignments wouldn't be an every day sort of 
thing. From the sound of it in the books they have an assignment per 
week because Hermione's always lecturing them about waiting so long 
to do them and the boys are doing them over the weekend. Just my 2 
cents. =o)

Sen
There's how many days until Christmas? Where did I put *my* time 
turner??