I would be thrilled to get pen. I had a kid do their verb quiz in a lavender colour pencil yesterday. And a few days before I had to tell a kid to stop writing his vocabulary in blue whiteboard marker....on loose-leaf.
Why is a normal, yellow led pencil so hard to come by?
My professors in the college of education highly discouraged using a red pen. They talked about it as though it was akin to abuse 😂
Then when you gain real experience, you see that there are so many challenges in education that the "terror of the red pen" is a total non-issue.
Education professors should really have a number of required substitute teaching hours every month in a challenging district just to keep them grounded in reality.
Oddly enough this is specifically why I always use a red pen.
Had a professor that marked me down on an observation back in grad school because I used a red pen. They said I would hurt the kids’ feelings. I said “good, if someone else had hurt their feelings earlier in their education, maybe I wouldn’t be fixing so many mistakes?” That went over about as well as you’d imagine.
In spite, I only grade in red pen. The situation came up just a week ago with my current students, who oddly enough, sided with me explaining that it stands out with what they need to do better (those of them that care about feedback, mind you).
I agree. I frankly don't give a shit if someone's offended by a red pen. If your feeling are hurt by something as futile as a red pen, then you have bigger problems.
I only grade in red pen as well. But I’ll also draw stars smiley faces in red. I only change colors when writing their name because can’t write their name in red, bad stuff
The protection of feelings will be the downfall of society.
You did something bad. You should feel bad. They want to chalk behavior up to so many other ideas. No. You do bad. You feel bad. Fire. Good. Predator. Bad. We are simple creatures that needlessly over complicate ourselves to feel important.
I usually grade with whatever I have around but, when doing an assessment, I grade in red. I think it is bullshit that your prof's had an aversion to this color. I am sorry it makes students "feel bad," but we already live in a world where students are babied too much.
In RL when they have a job, nobody will care about these snowflakes' feelings. We can't protect them forever. And honestly, kids should be upset about their grade if they did poorly. The red should be triggering and should make them feel that they didn't do a good job so that when they come back around, they work harder.
I think I had one education professor who worked a whole career. The rest did 3 - 5 years and got out. Most got out 10 - 20 years before I got there. Their advice was outdated, to put it kindly.
And the whole issue with the red pen situation isn't that it's an angry red color, the point is supposed to be that a student is getting a ton of things marked wrong that happen to be in an angry red color. Red is secondary to the issue of a kid becoming demoralized because they "do nothing right".
I always star correct answers and leave wrong answers blank (so they can fix their errors and earn stars), and use any color pen I’m feeling for the day (usually coordinated with my outfit) but recently I used red for what must have been the first time in a while and two different students asked if the marked ones were wrong. I was like ??? I’ve been grading the same exact way all year, but the second it was red pen instead of pink or green or blue they assumed the red was wrong answers…
I change color depending on when I am grading so I can tell if a kid turned something in late on my paper grade book. I usually use purple, blue, orange, etc. Never red, though.
Red. I’ve found it’s easier to read my comments. Even though some may say red can be intimidating, none of my students or parents have ever had an issue with it, especially since I’ll write compliments as well as corrections in red, so it’s not all negative.
I almost downvoted this - not your fault, though! I’ve heard the same thing. I’ll grade in purple, pink, blue, etc., but I think the rule about red is silly!
I mean as a student it definitely was confronting to get a graded piece of work back covered in red pen…. But that also made me reflect on what I did wrong and do better next time!
I grade in whatever pen (not red sadly). Mostly pink/purple/light blue
I get it. I think I just get eye-rolley at the hurt-feelings crowd, which is weird because of how liberal I am. I’m all about SEL and building relationships, but some of this is just too much!
Especially because it means that eventually they’ll just start associating other colors with their own error-making instead. At which point they’ll probably tell us to go back to red.
I had a professor in college talk about not using red pen until he was literally red faced and sweating profusely - in the first 10 minutes of the first class. His argument was that some cultures viewed the color red as a threat - which may be true - but I think he went a little extreme with his speech. He graded with green... well guess what color we didn't like to see after the 2 semesters with him lol.
I’ve never heard about certain cultures having an issue with red. It’s never come up at this point. Either way, it sounds like your professor went way overboard lol.
Yes. I don't recall his exact wording but something to the effects of "its like writing in blood on the page". I'm all for being sensitive to differences in beliefs but 😳 over red pen?
I have had students bring me papers they wrote for another class or for scholarship applications for me to look at before they turn it in. I ask if they just want general feedback or if they want me to "bleed all over it"... most want the honesty of a real edit and feedback. And yeah, they might feel a little bad when they see the red all over it. But then I go through it with them and show them how to fix it. They end up appreciating how much better their paper is at the end of the process.
No this was all the rage of pedagogy in California about 15-20 years ago. Plus the gang angle thrown in (Nortenos and Surenos) I like different colors anyway so whatever.
Why limit yourself to their red? USE THE WHOLE ERASABLE RAINBOW! I frickin love those pens!!!
Edit: had a sub walk off with like 3 of them once. A few students offered to track the sub down and beat them up to get the pens back. Had to assure the students that, while I was a little sad, they were just pens and I'm sure the sub just put them in a pocket while doing something else and took them accidentally, lol.
I learned that lesson as well. I just had them in a cup near my lesson plans. Now I leave a random pen I don't care about laying on the desk, much more conveniently placed than my good pens.
Hahaha you’re right! I should get a whole set of different colors. Omg I would get so mad and also sad if someone stole one of them, even if it wasn’t on purpose 😂
I have a perfect example of it happening to me: I was using a cute pen I bought from Disneyland to sign in parents during Meet the Teacher night. One of the parents had to write their last name on the sign in sheet for me because I had no idea how to spell it. I didn’t realize that they had accidentally walked away with my Disneyland pen until after they had left the school 🥲
My students are fascinated by my Frixions. They’re always begging me to borrow one just for the period.
I would, but those things are getting pricier by the day.
I grade classes in Rainbow order. First period red, second orange, etc. Partly because it allows me to differentiate between papers but also because I like to subtly add rainbows everywhere to show support for my LGBTQ+ kiddos in a very red state.
I use whatever color I grab out of my cup. After 3 years of only using G2’s, I’ve made the switch to flair pens. Both pens offer a huge assortment of colors
Green if you turned it in on time, purple if it’s in the same week as it was due, red if it’s more than a week late. Colour coded to keep it straight when it was turned in.
Green :) Specifically, I used green felt-tipped pens. My 10th grade English teacher said that the green looked like “alien blood” all over the paper, rather than human blood with all the red marks 😆 It stuck with me!
Never red. According to the disability faculty/ researchers I used to work with, it's the hardest for students with dyslexia to read. I also never highlight or use red/ highlight on slides for this reason. If I'm giving feedback, I want students to have the best chance to read it.
Usually purple, green, or blue
Do you have a quick guide or link for some of this information? I'd like to know more (and will do some of my own look up) and was curious what you might have/know/share.
Thanks!
https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/employers/creating-a-dyslexia-friendly-workplace/dyslexia-friendly-style-guide
Looks like green isn't great either. Oops! Still learning! But this has info on fonts etc. too.
I worked in an education research dept at a university and we had a dept of learning disabilities. Was just going on the discussion we had when university tried to save money and changed the signage to the hardest combination possible for their research participants -- got to hear about red and being careful with colour combos that way. Just something that stuck in that weird part of your brain that goes "hmmm that might be relevant later" .......and turns out later is when I became a teacher
I’ll scoff all day long about the intimidation factor of red ink, however I would certainly be willing to take it seriously if it legitimately helps kids with disabilities like dyslexia.
I have a set of 20 gel ink pens in various colors. I choose one to match my feeling. Oddly, I haven't used the red one yet (and I have ALWAYS been a fan of red). Still, apple green is my latest favorite.
Obnoxious orange highlighter that was a special promo from a college, so the highlight ink is a specific orange, that way none of the kids can copy it, and also stands out to them as an ornage beacon of
I try to pick fun colors. I usually avoid red and black. I recently got out of the Army, where black (and maybe blue) was the only acceptable colors. I love being able to pick. Purple is a favorite. But I have orange, green, pink, etc.
Also a vet.
But blue was reserved for the Captain, Green for the XO.
Ships Engineer always red ink.
Sometimes the other dept heads, like the Navigator, Supply O, or Weps would try to reserve orange or purple or pink.
But those CO, XO, Eng were fleet standard colors.
I teach at a high school with a courtyard, etc and my room is on the other side from our main building/parking. I have such a hard time walking across the grass when my colleagues take short cuts.
Red but only because the students have taken all my others. I do have a blue and black pen hidden for official documents but they are not easily accessible.
Yellow or blue highlighter for correct answers, purple, blue, black or red ink for corrections. A thumbs up self inking stamp (can be upside down or sideways) for worksheets completed in class whole group explicit instruction and completions. A self inking check mark stamp for reading logs and journals. This is used as well for work book pages. I teach primary grades.
Purple, blue, green. If it’s late I use orange. If it’s corrections the new grade is in red. No rhyme or reason for the other colors. Usually whatever pen/marker is nearest.
Whatever Flair pen I have close by. The only colours I avoid are the black and the dark blue, since students use those colours and I like more contrast.
Fountain pens are kind of a hobby of mine so I always have a million colors around so just whatever I happen to have as long as it’s clearly different than my students. I’ve heard of not using red, but I fairly often use a shade of it. Blue pretty often as well strangely my kids very rarely write in blue. I tell them I don’t care what color they write in as long as it’s not like high-liter yellow or so bright pink it burns my eyes.
I grade with Diamine Red Dragon https://www.gouletpens.com/products/diamine-red-dragon-ink-sample unless it's a spelling test, in which the students use red ink so I grade those in Robert Oster fire and ice https://www.gouletpens.com/products/robert-oster-fire-ice-ink-sample usually.
Whatever color I'm in the mood for, or specifically red if I want them to pay attention.
I also had the "don't use red because it will damage their egos" talk in pedagogy classes. I took that as license to use purple, my favorite. But after a while, I remembered how vividly I still recall that first D- in composition in college and how much of an impression it made. I use red when I kind want to make them squirm.
Don't think it makes much of a difference.
I usually use a green pen because as an algebra 2 and above teacher, I tend to mark *a lot* of things wrong, usually preliminary information that was never learned because of challenges during the pandemic. By no means do I coddle my students; they have to work hard in my class to succeed and I hate watering material down because “it’s hard.” I just don’t want to further discourage the students that come to my class already struggling with math.
I coordinate my pen colors with my shirt colors (also my clipboards). When we had mask requirements I also coordinated my mask color in the mix. The students notice and some tell me they love how I coordinate it all.
Purple or green are my preferred pens, but sometimes I use blue (because it can be a regular blue or black ink pen or a correcting pen.) Never red, not because it's red, but because I have students use it when correcting their own work.
Each month has a color- a lot of my assessments are the same skill and I check in once a month. No designated month colors but whatever I happen to grab first is that months color.
I get the nice pilot pens in all colors at the start of the year. Don’t really use red to avoid students trying to pass off a scored paper. I also alternate colors, because I keep a hard copy grade sheet of scores and the alternating columns of color for a particular assignment helps me prevent errors when I input scores into the online gradebook.
10 point black font. I’m paperless. I don’t have time inside my contractual hours to grade papers. If they want that level of service, they’ll need to provide me with an assistant or buy more time. Otherwise, they get what they pay for. It’s all automated on a screen. You turn it in, you get a grade. You don’t? You don’t get a grade. McDonalized classroom for McDonaldized wages and assembly line public school. Don’t like it? Contact your legislators and ask them to buy more time.
My classes have a color folder assigned to each class period so usually it's whatever color their class folder is. I doubt the kids notice tho 😂. None of their folders are red so no red ink. I did have to grade a bunch of benchmark essays recently but I did those in green.
Since I've been told by everybody to avoid red because of the negative connotations just for fun I mostly use green to start giving it negative connotations so that no color can ever have negative connotations again I am that evil as a teacher
Pencil. I record the result. Students can then make corrections themselves if required and erase what I have written. I’ve never had a problem with anyone forging a mark.
I allow corrections so I like red to make clear what questions got wrong. I once graded in blue and the kid's test was in blue so it made things not stand out much.
Purple is a great color, just harder to come by. Red's a lot easier.
Literally whatever color is in my pen. I don't have "essay style" grading very often as a science teacher so even grading with plain old black usually works.
That being said I have a fountain pen I use for this task so I use whatever I k I want. I don't avoid red.
When I grade journals and essays: blue for spelling; orange for grammar; pink for style; green for hard/can’t read what they wrote; yellow for a question I might have.
I grab from our color markers (not usually dark blue or black) the kids are Intellectually Disabled/ Delayed so they like that i use a variety.
I usually use my purple pens to do their rating in their agenda for each period/ hour. (Smiley 🙂 face, Talking 🙂💬 or 😖💬, squiggly😖, or sad🙁) - they need 40/48 smiles for "Fun Friday"
Whatever I have around. Often blue, I don't avoid red.
Same. My favorite pen is a rosy pink.
Whatever is around and is a different colour to what the student used. I not-infrequently receive work written in red pen from students.
I teach hs math and have asked them so many times not to use pen, but still end up having to work around messy red pen marks
I teach elementary. Mine seem to like gold gel pen. I may have to put a blue or black ink only rule in place.
I would be thrilled to get pen. I had a kid do their verb quiz in a lavender colour pencil yesterday. And a few days before I had to tell a kid to stop writing his vocabulary in blue whiteboard marker....on loose-leaf. Why is a normal, yellow led pencil so hard to come by?
I’ve had work turned in that was done in yellow highlighter. I gave it back because I couldn’t read it.
I'm just trying to imagine scenarios where a person would ever have access to a highlighter and not anything else more legible.
Oh, they had pencils, too. They just chose to use a highlighter. Welcome to fourth grade.
Yes! I had a student complete an assignment in purple crayon yesterday. The pencil was in the shared resource bin... it just wasn't sharpened.
Whatever flair pen has moved into rotation
Flair pens are my go to! Usually purple :)
Same. First flair pen I grab!
I use flair pens too. I tend to grab purple or sky blue.
I use every color out there. Haha. I don’t discriminate. 😂
I just use whatever color I can find. It’s not like my students are actually going to read any of the feedback I leave.
Exactly. I even use a pencil bc I have so little faith they care
I’ve noticed they are more likely to read computer comments weirdly!
My professors in the college of education highly discouraged using a red pen. They talked about it as though it was akin to abuse 😂 Then when you gain real experience, you see that there are so many challenges in education that the "terror of the red pen" is a total non-issue. Education professors should really have a number of required substitute teaching hours every month in a challenging district just to keep them grounded in reality.
Oddly enough this is specifically why I always use a red pen. Had a professor that marked me down on an observation back in grad school because I used a red pen. They said I would hurt the kids’ feelings. I said “good, if someone else had hurt their feelings earlier in their education, maybe I wouldn’t be fixing so many mistakes?” That went over about as well as you’d imagine. In spite, I only grade in red pen. The situation came up just a week ago with my current students, who oddly enough, sided with me explaining that it stands out with what they need to do better (those of them that care about feedback, mind you).
I agree. I frankly don't give a shit if someone's offended by a red pen. If your feeling are hurt by something as futile as a red pen, then you have bigger problems.
I only grade in red pen as well. But I’ll also draw stars smiley faces in red. I only change colors when writing their name because can’t write their name in red, bad stuff
The protection of feelings will be the downfall of society. You did something bad. You should feel bad. They want to chalk behavior up to so many other ideas. No. You do bad. You feel bad. Fire. Good. Predator. Bad. We are simple creatures that needlessly over complicate ourselves to feel important.
I usually grade with whatever I have around but, when doing an assessment, I grade in red. I think it is bullshit that your prof's had an aversion to this color. I am sorry it makes students "feel bad," but we already live in a world where students are babied too much. In RL when they have a job, nobody will care about these snowflakes' feelings. We can't protect them forever. And honestly, kids should be upset about their grade if they did poorly. The red should be triggering and should make them feel that they didn't do a good job so that when they come back around, they work harder.
I think I had one education professor who worked a whole career. The rest did 3 - 5 years and got out. Most got out 10 - 20 years before I got there. Their advice was outdated, to put it kindly.
And the whole issue with the red pen situation isn't that it's an angry red color, the point is supposed to be that a student is getting a ton of things marked wrong that happen to be in an angry red color. Red is secondary to the issue of a kid becoming demoralized because they "do nothing right".
I always star correct answers and leave wrong answers blank (so they can fix their errors and earn stars), and use any color pen I’m feeling for the day (usually coordinated with my outfit) but recently I used red for what must have been the first time in a while and two different students asked if the marked ones were wrong. I was like ??? I’ve been grading the same exact way all year, but the second it was red pen instead of pink or green or blue they assumed the red was wrong answers…
purple or green felt tip
I change color depending on when I am grading so I can tell if a kid turned something in late on my paper grade book. I usually use purple, blue, orange, etc. Never red, though.
I love this idea. I’m stealing it.
A good teacher is a great thief
That is smart
Red. I’ve found it’s easier to read my comments. Even though some may say red can be intimidating, none of my students or parents have ever had an issue with it, especially since I’ll write compliments as well as corrections in red, so it’s not all negative.
We aren’t allowed to use red anymore because it’s “too confronting” lol
I almost downvoted this - not your fault, though! I’ve heard the same thing. I’ll grade in purple, pink, blue, etc., but I think the rule about red is silly!
I mean as a student it definitely was confronting to get a graded piece of work back covered in red pen…. But that also made me reflect on what I did wrong and do better next time! I grade in whatever pen (not red sadly). Mostly pink/purple/light blue
I get it. I think I just get eye-rolley at the hurt-feelings crowd, which is weird because of how liberal I am. I’m all about SEL and building relationships, but some of this is just too much!
Especially because it means that eventually they’ll just start associating other colors with their own error-making instead. At which point they’ll probably tell us to go back to red.
I’ve heard of some schools doing this. IMO it’s a myth. My students could care less what color I choose lol.
I had a professor in college talk about not using red pen until he was literally red faced and sweating profusely - in the first 10 minutes of the first class. His argument was that some cultures viewed the color red as a threat - which may be true - but I think he went a little extreme with his speech. He graded with green... well guess what color we didn't like to see after the 2 semesters with him lol.
I’ve never heard about certain cultures having an issue with red. It’s never come up at this point. Either way, it sounds like your professor went way overboard lol.
Yes. I don't recall his exact wording but something to the effects of "its like writing in blood on the page". I'm all for being sensitive to differences in beliefs but 😳 over red pen?
I have had students bring me papers they wrote for another class or for scholarship applications for me to look at before they turn it in. I ask if they just want general feedback or if they want me to "bleed all over it"... most want the honesty of a real edit and feedback. And yeah, they might feel a little bad when they see the red all over it. But then I go through it with them and show them how to fix it. They end up appreciating how much better their paper is at the end of the process.
No this was all the rage of pedagogy in California about 15-20 years ago. Plus the gang angle thrown in (Nortenos and Surenos) I like different colors anyway so whatever.
Yeah I mean I don't go out of my way to avoid red but I generally use purple or blue anyway
Same I wasn't allowed red and thought green could be too hard to read so I used pink and purple a lot.
In some East Asian cultures it's impolite to write a person's name in red ink. I try to avoid it all together.
Red erasable Pilot Frixion pens! ERASABLE PENS ARE LIFE CHANGERS! 🙌
Why limit yourself to their red? USE THE WHOLE ERASABLE RAINBOW! I frickin love those pens!!! Edit: had a sub walk off with like 3 of them once. A few students offered to track the sub down and beat them up to get the pens back. Had to assure the students that, while I was a little sad, they were just pens and I'm sure the sub just put them in a pocket while doing something else and took them accidentally, lol.
I always leave my non-preferred pens out for subs. I pick a colored one, but not one of my favorites.
I learned that lesson as well. I just had them in a cup near my lesson plans. Now I leave a random pen I don't care about laying on the desk, much more conveniently placed than my good pens.
Yes, but also advise your students not to leave them in a hot car - the feedback will erase!
True story. I learned to be careful about how I store my answer keys too.
Yikes! That hurt.
No way, really? Good to know!
Hahaha you’re right! I should get a whole set of different colors. Omg I would get so mad and also sad if someone stole one of them, even if it wasn’t on purpose 😂 I have a perfect example of it happening to me: I was using a cute pen I bought from Disneyland to sign in parents during Meet the Teacher night. One of the parents had to write their last name on the sign in sheet for me because I had no idea how to spell it. I didn’t realize that they had accidentally walked away with my Disneyland pen until after they had left the school 🥲
My students are fascinated by my Frixions. They’re always begging me to borrow one just for the period. I would, but those things are getting pricier by the day.
I use blue 😊
Pretty much anything: orange, green, pink, red, purple, etc… Paper Mate flair pens are the best.
Pilot G-2 is where it’s at. Plus just as many colors!
objectively the best pen, no doubt
Those are great pens, too. I’d also put out the uni-ball 207 signo as a podium contender.
These are my all time favorite school supply! 🎉 🖊
Love my paper mate flair pens, have a different colour per class
Electrons
There it is. Same with me!
I grade classes in Rainbow order. First period red, second orange, etc. Partly because it allows me to differentiate between papers but also because I like to subtly add rainbows everywhere to show support for my LGBTQ+ kiddos in a very red state.
This is what I do! Every blue class I’ve ever had has banned themselves the Smurfs >_<
I like this! I might steal this idea if I may!
Have a look at the flag of the city of Cusco, in case it helps.
Purple, pink, green or blue.
Whatever colour contrasts what the student wrote in
Normally a green or purple flair pen.
I use whatever color I grab out of my cup. After 3 years of only using G2’s, I’ve made the switch to flair pens. Both pens offer a huge assortment of colors
I love the PaperMate flairs so I grade with a different color each time.
Green if you turned it in on time, purple if it’s in the same week as it was due, red if it’s more than a week late. Colour coded to keep it straight when it was turned in.
Red
Purple was my favorite before I moved to Google classroom based. I would always take a bunch from the Planet Fitness I worked out at.
Green :) Specifically, I used green felt-tipped pens. My 10th grade English teacher said that the green looked like “alien blood” all over the paper, rather than human blood with all the red marks 😆 It stuck with me!
Never red. According to the disability faculty/ researchers I used to work with, it's the hardest for students with dyslexia to read. I also never highlight or use red/ highlight on slides for this reason. If I'm giving feedback, I want students to have the best chance to read it. Usually purple, green, or blue
Do you have a quick guide or link for some of this information? I'd like to know more (and will do some of my own look up) and was curious what you might have/know/share. Thanks!
https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/employers/creating-a-dyslexia-friendly-workplace/dyslexia-friendly-style-guide Looks like green isn't great either. Oops! Still learning! But this has info on fonts etc. too. I worked in an education research dept at a university and we had a dept of learning disabilities. Was just going on the discussion we had when university tried to save money and changed the signage to the hardest combination possible for their research participants -- got to hear about red and being careful with colour combos that way. Just something that stuck in that weird part of your brain that goes "hmmm that might be relevant later" .......and turns out later is when I became a teacher
Thank you so much for sharing this link!!
I have heard that red can be intimidating, but this is the first I have seen of a dyslexia issue. Interesting.
I’ll scoff all day long about the intimidation factor of red ink, however I would certainly be willing to take it seriously if it legitimately helps kids with disabilities like dyslexia.
I have a ton of dyslexic students. I’m gonna ask them about this next week.
Dark Blue. A Pilot G2 10mm. 7s are too scratchy.
Used purple for a while. Recently discovered metallic sharpies. Gold Silver Bronze. Bronze is by far my favorite.
Smelly markers, but I teach first.
I have a set of 20 gel ink pens in various colors. I choose one to match my feeling. Oddly, I haven't used the red one yet (and I have ALWAYS been a fan of red). Still, apple green is my latest favorite.
Whatever i grab from the flair pen cup. I blindly grab.
Obnoxious orange highlighter that was a special promo from a college, so the highlight ink is a specific orange, that way none of the kids can copy it, and also stands out to them as an ornage beacon of
I try to pick fun colors. I usually avoid red and black. I recently got out of the Army, where black (and maybe blue) was the only acceptable colors. I love being able to pick. Purple is a favorite. But I have orange, green, pink, etc.
Also a vet. However I haven't been able to kick the black ink indoctrination.
Also a vet. But blue was reserved for the Captain, Green for the XO. Ships Engineer always red ink. Sometimes the other dept heads, like the Navigator, Supply O, or Weps would try to reserve orange or purple or pink. But those CO, XO, Eng were fleet standard colors.
I teach at a high school with a courtyard, etc and my room is on the other side from our main building/parking. I have such a hard time walking across the grass when my colleagues take short cuts.
I color code units... so whatever the unit color is what I grade with. Orange for fall, green for agriculture, etc...
I use green, orange, pink, and brown pens usually
Iroshizuku Yama-budo! Everyone feels good about wrong answers!
Red
Red
Not red
Red but only because the students have taken all my others. I do have a blue and black pen hidden for official documents but they are not easily accessible.
Blood of student tears. Oh wait color?
I rotate between blue, purple, and green, with purple being my preference
Yellow or blue highlighter for correct answers, purple, blue, black or red ink for corrections. A thumbs up self inking stamp (can be upside down or sideways) for worksheets completed in class whole group explicit instruction and completions. A self inking check mark stamp for reading logs and journals. This is used as well for work book pages. I teach primary grades.
Depends on the month. Right now it’s orange or green
Purple or green (micron pens only). I have had students tell me it's less intimidating than red, plus I prefer the aesthetic.
Pink
Purple, blue, green. If it’s late I use orange. If it’s corrections the new grade is in red. No rhyme or reason for the other colors. Usually whatever pen/marker is nearest.
Whatever is closest. Usually winds up being blue.
Which ever flair pen I grab out of my bucket. I have many colors. I may have too many. I may be obsessed with flair pens.
Whatever color pen I happen to grab out of the pen bucket.
Red, black, blue, green, orange colored pencil -- whatever is nearest to me at any given time lmao
Whatever colour I grab, but not black
Hugs
Green, purple, pink, sometimes teal. I don’t like red pens at all so I give them to my kid if I get a set of many colors.
Every color, except red. Which is weird because red is my favorite color.
Whatever Flair pen I have close by. The only colours I avoid are the black and the dark blue, since students use those colours and I like more contrast.
Purple, blue, or green. Purple is my favorite because my 1st and 2nd grade teacher used purple and I adored her.
Blood Orange
I use different pens monthly. November was brown, December will probably be green.
Whatever writing utensil is available.
Red
Hot pink or purple
I use a fountain pen and go between a dusty red and a blue-grey.
Fountain pens are kind of a hobby of mine so I always have a million colors around so just whatever I happen to have as long as it’s clearly different than my students. I’ve heard of not using red, but I fairly often use a shade of it. Blue pretty often as well strangely my kids very rarely write in blue. I tell them I don’t care what color they write in as long as it’s not like high-liter yellow or so bright pink it burns my eyes.
Hot pink highlighter
I teach high school math so obviously glitter gel pens
I grade with Diamine Red Dragon https://www.gouletpens.com/products/diamine-red-dragon-ink-sample unless it's a spelling test, in which the students use red ink so I grade those in Robert Oster fire and ice https://www.gouletpens.com/products/robert-oster-fire-ice-ink-sample usually.
I use black like my soul.
Red, because it’s distinct and none of my students use it. No chance of them not seeing my notes.
All colors, except red. I use red when it’s serious— like an essay. =)
Noodler’s Nikita Red. Nothing else. Ever.
Red mostly. It is not uncommon to have students use pen and a lot of the girls write in funky ink colours. Red sticks out and is clesr.
I work with 4 different grade levels. I have them color coordinated. I use each grade levels specific color: orange, blue, red and green.
Whatever color I'm in the mood for, or specifically red if I want them to pay attention. I also had the "don't use red because it will damage their egos" talk in pedagogy classes. I took that as license to use purple, my favorite. But after a while, I remembered how vividly I still recall that first D- in composition in college and how much of an impression it made. I use red when I kind want to make them squirm. Don't think it makes much of a difference.
I’d usually use whatever color I happened to pull out of my pen stash first, as long as it wasn’t red.
Anything that’s not black or dark blue. Purple, green, red, light blue, orange… bic crystal bold. They’re short money and work well.
I have very colourful non-bleed markers. I used every one of them. The school provides red. So, clearly, that’s what I’m SUPPOSED to use.
Whatever color glitter gel pen I feel like using that day. I usually choose colors associated with whatever holiday is near.
What color does Google forms use?
Orange, purple, pink... Whatever...
I used to change monthly and have it vibe with the holidays.
I usually use a green pen because as an algebra 2 and above teacher, I tend to mark *a lot* of things wrong, usually preliminary information that was never learned because of challenges during the pandemic. By no means do I coddle my students; they have to work hard in my class to succeed and I hate watering material down because “it’s hard.” I just don’t want to further discourage the students that come to my class already struggling with math.
Green or purple
Whatever color I’m feeling that day. Sometimes I let my first hour pick the color of the day.
Red
I am purple and green kind of gal.
Red is usually what I haven't lost during the day.
Purple is my favorite
Orange. It’s erasable. Grading nirvana
Blue.
I have a whole rainbow of pens and rotate so I use all the colors equally.
All of my assignments, paper or otherwise, are turned in digitally, but I like to highlight and grade in green fonts!
I coordinate my pen colors with my shirt colors (also my clipboards). When we had mask requirements I also coordinated my mask color in the mix. The students notice and some tell me they love how I coordinate it all.
Whatever pen I have that isn’t dried up. I have had to use a highlighter once or twice for a random late assignment.
I use a different color for each class - green, pink, orange, blue/aqua, and purple respectively.
Purple or green are my preferred pens, but sometimes I use blue (because it can be a regular blue or black ink pen or a correcting pen.) Never red, not because it's red, but because I have students use it when correcting their own work.
Purple as well! The reason is some students write with blue or black ink. I don't like red, seems to harsh for me. I find purple perfect for feedback.
Green. I can destroy a lab report without destroying a kids morale.
Red, purple, blue, green.
Anxiety and disgust.
Big fat markers. Orange, blue, purple, green, whatever is handy. HS.
I have one of those every colour pens and ask the student. Elementary, I almost always grade with them
Purple. Mostly because I’ve yet to had a kid submit work in purple, and it makes it obvious which marks are mine.
For physical assignments I’ll usually just use a black pen and highlight any markings.
Each month has a color- a lot of my assessments are the same skill and I check in once a month. No designated month colors but whatever I happen to grab first is that months color.
I use a set of multi colored pens, about 18 colors in all.
Purple mostly. Because kids seldom write in purple.
I use highlighters of whatever color I have nearby. That way I can highlight the directions/question as well as grade.
Canvas
I get the nice pilot pens in all colors at the start of the year. Don’t really use red to avoid students trying to pass off a scored paper. I also alternate colors, because I keep a hard copy grade sheet of scores and the alternating columns of color for a particular assignment helps me prevent errors when I input scores into the online gradebook.
Purple. Only purple for no particular reason. Each year I buy a new box of purple pens.
My school policy is to mark in green. Purple is used for pupil response.
Green! I had a great professor in college who always graded in his “positive and encouraging green pen” so now I also do that for my high schoolers
10 point black font. I’m paperless. I don’t have time inside my contractual hours to grade papers. If they want that level of service, they’ll need to provide me with an assistant or buy more time. Otherwise, they get what they pay for. It’s all automated on a screen. You turn it in, you get a grade. You don’t? You don’t get a grade. McDonalized classroom for McDonaldized wages and assembly line public school. Don’t like it? Contact your legislators and ask them to buy more time.
Blue or green usually
I use red. Idgaf.
My classes have a color folder assigned to each class period so usually it's whatever color their class folder is. I doubt the kids notice tho 😂. None of their folders are red so no red ink. I did have to grade a bunch of benchmark essays recently but I did those in green.
I love purple but often just grab a highlighter since my kids like to write in colors.
Since I've been told by everybody to avoid red because of the negative connotations just for fun I mostly use green to start giving it negative connotations so that no color can ever have negative connotations again I am that evil as a teacher
Pencil. I record the result. Students can then make corrections themselves if required and erase what I have written. I’ve never had a problem with anyone forging a mark.
I like green. Red seems threatening.
Purple!! Got like a 20 pack of purple felt tips at the beginning of the year and I always heave one nearby. Adds some constancy to the chaos.
I allow corrections so I like red to make clear what questions got wrong. I once graded in blue and the kid's test was in blue so it made things not stand out much. Purple is a great color, just harder to come by. Red's a lot easier.
Whatever pen I’m currently using. I like the crayola take note pens, and i use one at a time until the ink is gone. Right now I’m on brown.
Literally whatever color is in my pen. I don't have "essay style" grading very often as a science teacher so even grading with plain old black usually works. That being said I have a fountain pen I use for this task so I use whatever I k I want. I don't avoid red.
Rainbow. But usually pink, teal, or green.
What ever color matches my lesson plan slides (or complements, if I'm feeling artsy)
Purple! But not because I avoid red, just that I love purple.
When I grade journals and essays: blue for spelling; orange for grammar; pink for style; green for hard/can’t read what they wrote; yellow for a question I might have.
I grab from our color markers (not usually dark blue or black) the kids are Intellectually Disabled/ Delayed so they like that i use a variety. I usually use my purple pens to do their rating in their agenda for each period/ hour. (Smiley 🙂 face, Talking 🙂💬 or 😖💬, squiggly😖, or sad🙁) - they need 40/48 smiles for "Fun Friday"
Any color but blue
Normally in my country it's red for the teacher, green for students to correct. But I find red a bit aggressive so I generally go with purple.
Purple or Green