Grading Papers: From Burnout to Breakthrough with Dr. Randy Anita Rutledge

Imagine being trapped in a cycle where every waking moment outside of work is consumed by a singular task. For me, that was grading papers— an endless endeavor that left me exhausted and disconnected from my family. 

This preview of Grading Papers takes you on my personal journey from burnout to breakthrough as I share how I turned my life around by creating my first Zip App. 

This revolutionary tool transformed my grading process, slashing the time I spent on discussions from hours to just one, and opened the door to life beyond the confines of my office.

Episode #1: January 21, 2025 - 8:00pm EST.

Until next time, keep grading, keep growing, and keep making a difference in your students' lives.

Dr. Rutledge

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

For about a year they'd ask my husband where's Randy - Grading papers? My kids would be where's mom at - Grading papers? My grandkids would be like where's grandma - Grading papers? It seemed like for a full year, every waking hour that I wasn't working my nine to five job. I was grading papers or grading discussions or looking at case studies or grading projects or grading PowerPoint presentations. That's all I did, and it was one of the reasons why I started working on the app.

Speaker 1: 0:33

My first app was the discussion app and I called it Zip because after I created it and I tested it, I was very shocked. And so then I started using it for my discussions and at that time I had about three classes, I think, and I started using it for my discussions and it seemed like it was taking me about four to six hours to do discussions. And you know, once you, once the students put in their discussions on Sunday 11 59 eastern standard time, you have about four days for some courses and then for other courses you may have seven days and I had to grade everything and be up to um. You know, caught up because one of the schools I work with there's a link on there and it says my professor is not up to date on my grades. So it was like you want to have a standard and you want to make sure that you do what you need, because, after all, these students are in school, they're working a lot of them, they're paying for their education whatever they're doing, and they deserve adjuncts and professors to kind of give them their grades so they know where they're going and they can adjust whatever submissions they have.

Speaker 1: 1:50

But on a personal note, I was burnt out and I mean there would be times I would stop working at my six o'clock and then I'd eat a little something and then I would be back to grading to sometimes five o'clock in the morning. My Saturdays became my sleep-a-thons, where I would just sleep all Saturday and then I would prep for what I have to do Monday. So that might include doing announcements, doing this, doing that, and everything was for a school, several schools or maybe one school. And the point I'm trying to make is that zip discussion was the first app that I created and I went from six hours doing discussions to doing some discussions in one hour and I really felt guilty. I mean that that's not the impact or the outcome I expected, because normally I'm in my office, and this time I wasn't in there all day, all night.

Speaker 1: 2:55

I came out of my office, I turned off the fan, I closed the door and I went in there and sat down with my husband while he was watching a football game, and he just looked at me. He was like you're done. I was like, yeah, I can't believe it. I went from four to six hours to one hour and I am done. And then I felt guilty, I felt like I should go back in there, and so I was talking to a colleague of mine, dr Robin, and we talked about how, when you're used to things being hard, you cannot accept the gift of easy. Join me for the first episode of Grading Papers, a podcast dedicated to supporting and empowering adjunct professors. I'll be your host, dr Randy Anita Rutledge, and I am thrilled to embark on this journey with you.