Teaching writing

I have a new assignment this semester. I'm now a teacher of writing. I've always made efforts to help my students write as well as they can, but in the past that was a secondary responsibility.

This semester I am one of four teachers in a class whose purpose is to teach writing. I have a group of 17 students who are assigned to write a short essay every week. That means I have to read and critique 17 short essays every week. It takes me at least 2 full work days to accomplish this.

I feel it is my responsibility to write meaningful comments that actually help students to do better the next time. How else can they get better unless I tell them some specific things that they need to work on? This takes a lot of my time.

The irony is that now that I am a teacher of writing, I have no time for my own writing.