Day 45

Well, term ended last Friday and that was an adventure getting to. I'll say this, at least I survived my first term as a high school teacher.

It is amazing how many student procrastinated until Friday trying to get things in or saying that they wanted to retake one of their tests. I've had a few students come in and try to do that today, but I'm not allowing them. It isn't my fault that they didn't do it within the time allotted. I've even had some students try to argue with me about the fact that all they need is 1 point on one of their assignments and they move up the half step in their grade. I am not going to change the student's grade by 1 point because they asked me. I already gave them extra credit if they weren't absent or tardy the entire term. The rest is up to them. It isn't part of my job description to make sure that certain students pass by an A or pass by a C. That is up to the effort that the student makes. I do do this though. If I can see that they worked really hard on an assignment but they still didn't meet all the requirements or didn't do to well, I will give them a bit of leeway in the grade. But they have to prove to me that they have done their best.

I've seen a few students that come in every after-school lab that I have and they are in here during intervention making up assignments and asking questions and getting the help they need and they still were in the low C range. For them I had them write a little paragraph on what they learned and what they still don't understand and I gave them points for it. It raised them all up into the B range. I am happy to do that when they are putting the effort forward. But I will not give away grades to students who come in the day after term ends saying that they didn't know they could make-up a test and that they didn't know what their grade was. I don't give in.

As far as starting off the 2nd term right, it has been a rough morning. I've had student after student complaining about their grade. I've had a few students who decided that they were going to get the administration involved or their parents involved. I'm not going to give in to threats. That isn't my way of teaching. Then I have the students who say that they e-mailed me the assignment and it isn't their fault that the e-mail didn't go through. If they tell me that, I ask them to open up their e-mail and show me the sent mail and the date it was sent on. Usually that gets them to zip up or they get really embarrassed and ask if they can have a few minutes to pull it up. Usually I tell them no and tell them that lying doesn't get you anywhere. Many of my students know that I believe in Karma and I tell them that it is their Karma that will suffer, not mine, for lying to the teacher and to themselves. I'm thinking about finding a quote for Karma and placing it in my room.

The freshman computer tech class is moving along, although I had 3 students fail. 1 because of cheating twice and 2 because they just didn't turn anything in and they are blaming me saying that they didn't have enough time to turn anything in. If they have an extra 20 minutes every day to come in and work on their assignments and they choose not to come and do that, it is on their grade.

I'm starting to tell the students about their end-of-semester test and what is expected of them. I've had them start repeating to me what was said and what is expected. Hopefully that will help to solidify that in their brains. It is amazing that I can tell my students one simple thing and by the time that they get into the lab (about 12 steps) it has gone in one ear and out the other.

Lets hope that 2nd term goes a bit smoother.