673: Being “equitable”

Some schools, in an effort to pass and graduate more students (this has nothing to do with teaching them anything other than finagling), have come up with a new policy. Students who have missing or zero grades at the end of term will have all of the work they chose not to complete replaced with their final exam grade.

Now, let’s just suppose – let’s extrapolate that policy to the nth degree, shall we? That means I can attend class for the entire term (180 days, or 90 days for block schedule), do absolutely nothing, and squeak out a barely passing grade on the final exam, and all of that work I refused to complete all term will now be excused and replaced (scored, so to speak) with my squeaky passing grade – meaning I passed the course. I barely passed, but I passed.

Here’s an idea hatched from that cauldron of crap that might actually be “equitable” to all students: let’s give everyone a final exam on day one of the course. Those who achieve a passing grade can now exempt the course with credit, and they don’t have to show up all year. Isn’t that the exact same thing? Haven’t they proved (in advance, at that!) that they have enough knowledge to pass the course already?

Problem: No employer wants their employee doing nothing for the year and then turning in a barely acceptable performance for one day – and expecting to be paid (rewarded) like everyone else who showed up and did what they were asked to do on a daily basis. So this nifty educational idea bears no resemblance to anything that happens in actual life – at least, not for all those of us whose numbers didn’t hit on the lottery. And not everybody has a ready-made business they can run and therefore avoid being an employee, either.

657: Teachers make all other professions possible

I teach. I don’t talk about it much. When I was a new teacher, there was craftsmanship. It was an art. Computers took all of that away.

The policies under which I now work are absolutely NOT helping to produce productive, mature, responsible human beings. I am not proud to be part of the current process. I do not believe being able to retake a test is helping students prepare to take tests. I do not believe it is helping to require a teacher to put 50 points of academic credit in the grade book for NOTHING – no student effort expended whatsoever, other than breathing (not an academic activity last time I checked), not even including non-attendance as a factor – NO – I am told to award academic credit for NOTHING. How is that helping make a responsible human, employee, citizen?

Yes, I am doing all that I can do (and still keep a job) to properly, carefully, and competently educate and guide my students, working diligently, helping them become better young humans. Still.

There is only so much I can do in an hour a day to offset what they have (and have not) learned at home, and from the media, and their peers. Teaching responsibility is often a fairly painful process, and that isn’t allowed in schools anymore. People make mistakes, often painful ones, that cost them time, or money, missed opportunities, points, and other things they want. It is not getting those things when a mistake is made, and learning from the pain of losing out on something you wanted, that helps teach responsibility – and it isn’t allowed anymore. The rule used to be “no pain, no gain.” Now the rule is “no pain, no pain.”

Now, all that occurs when a student makes a mistake is that a parent calls and complains. Then I am told that an exception will be made. Nobody is learning to be responsible in school anymore, AS IF they are miraculously just going to achieve that state when they walk across that stage at graduation. Yeah, right.

When I am old and feeble, and cannot care for myself any longer, just shoot me. It would be kinder. I do not want to depend on the youngsters we are producing in American schools today when  I am unable to care for myself. I have seen what they think is a good job. Worse, I have seen what they think is “good enough.” Nope. Just shoot me.

568: Effort

As another school year winds to a close, I am forcibly reminded that many, many, many people have a ridiculous sense of entitlement. I posted in my classroom a few weeks ago (for exactly this time) the statement “Don’t be upset over the RESULTS you did not get from the EFFORT you did not invest.”

As a teacher, I provide students with multiple learning opportunities: assignments. I count (grade) most of them. Our school uses a continuous average grading system, which means we do not set in stone your grade as a student each reporting term. So, your final grade is not determined by the averages of your first, second, third, and fourth grading term results, but instead, the overall average at the end of the year.  This allows students who do poorly to bring up their averages and earn credit for the year.

It also means students who have done moderately to marginally well all year can fail the entire year (even posting a passing average for the first three quarters) by slacking off at the end – which is RICHLY coming to pass. It is amazing how seven or eight zeros at the tail end can drop a close to failing year-long average right over the cliff.

I have warned students in every class that if their averages are in the low 70’s, that they are in danger of failing the course for the entire year, and they are, as usual, ignoring me. Problem is, time is short for completing work, and I am not grading anything turned in late now at full credit, PLUS, I am not accepting work from FIRST,  SECOND, and THIRD TERMS at this late date. Seriously?? You even bothered to ask?

I watched you sit and do nothing for days and weeks, while I chivvied you and reminded you and redirected you countless times, and NOW you get concerned about course credit and passing averages? NOW you want me to provide you with “extra credit” work? Nope.

In twenty-six years of teaching, I have NEVER, EVER, not even ONCE, had a child fail a class I taught with low grades on work they submitted. Not once. Every single child (and I work mostly with high schoolers) who fails has done so on ZEROS: work they just chose not to complete and submit for scoring.

I can work with a student who shows me some effort, even if it is not up to standard. As an employer, I want someone to work every day at the tasks I have set for them to do. As a teacher, I want exactly the same thing. I can help you if you are working. You can ask questions, and we can fix your work on the spot to provide you with better scores. You can get feedback on where this work could be improved.

I do not “give” grades: you earn them and I post them. I can credit someone who is working, even when they do not possess the native ability to do it at A or B quality work. THAT is not required. It is wonderful and appreciated and celebrated, but so is the determined effort to get the work done and submitted on time when assigned. I cannot post credit for something that is not submitted.

And the time of reckoning is at hand.

 

205: Anxiety

It is a curiously uncomfortable feeling, laying out one’s credentials for obtaining a loan for a new (well – used, but new to ME) car.

There’s the need to look confident; as if there could, of course, be no doubt that I more than qualify for the paltry sum I am requesting to borrow.

Then there is the faint anxiety that some past indiscretion will pop up on an incriminating computer terminal – and sirens will sound and lights will flash and the loan officer will smile a superior smile and offer their sincere regrets that their company is regrettably unable to offer me the loan.

It is a little bit like having to wait for the results of a physical exam – surely everything is alright, but there’s always the slim, worrisome possibility of a fatal disease heretofore undiscovered.

It also reminds me of that faint anxiety you have when you are presented with an award – right in the middle of the presentation, will someone yell FRAUD – that I don’t really deserve this honor about to be bestowed?

It’s that familiar sense of breathless anticipation when the preacher says “If there be anyone among you who has just cause that these two should not be married, let him speak now or forever hold his peace.” There’s always that pregnant little pause, where everybody hopes simultaneously that something and nothing will happen.

Oh, well, I did get the loan after all – and nothing awful happened….this time!

78: Students

I am a teacher of students grades 1 through grade 12. We just concluded a grading period. I am going through the usual flack from students who have been less than careful about getting all assignments announced in class completed, or made up, on time. Consider, now, that I accept late work FAR later than I should accept it, in spite of the course syllabus all students recieved that says that it is my choice to accept late work OR NOT, and that I reserve the option to accept it late for reduced credit. I have not so far this year *not* accepted late work, even work turned in DAYS after the term is over, for FULL credit. You would think students are grateful for this. This is not the case. I have been perceived as weak, and have been verbaly abused not once, but several times by several students in the last few days.

I can learn from my mistakes, too. What I have just been taught, by my beloved students, is that students are not grateful for extra consideration, not grateful that I accepted late work for full credit. I can learn from this mistake. I will simply cease to do this. Any late work I do choose to accept will be for major points off – at least one letter grade for each day it is submitted late. And, I will not accept just any late work: on some assignments I will provide zeros for any work, by any student, not submitted on time.

This should end the problems, no? I have, after all, been counseling students ALL YEAR to WRITE down assignemnts due in their agenda book. Is this happening? Obviously not. If it were happening, I would not be grading the majority of work I get late. We’ll see if this new policy makes life easier for me. They don’t pay me enough for this grief.

18: Plagiarism

I just taught about plagiarism again in class. This is the practice of using the thoughts and ideas of others without giving them credit for their work; making it appear as if the thoughts and ideas were your own. Now, this is a subject that I teach again each year, and refer to often during the course of the year as well. Beginning writers often make mistakes in citation, that is quite normal. This is the time when they are learning how to cite properly in preparation for higher education in a college or university.

The problem occurs when it is apparent that the lack of citation was deliberate, and not just the mistake of a beginner. I use, like many other teachers, a plagiarism detection Web site that helps me track instances of copying from sources. Many students are shocked to discover such sites exist, and that they make copying from others in a paper very obvious to the teacher. For many of them, this is their first time being caught doing something they have quite happily been doing for years in school. They are quite put out that this is not acceptable anymore, when they have been getting ‘A’ grades for doing just this very thing for years. It is a tremendous attitude adjustment for a significant number of them, and I can completely understand their consternation. WHY is is suddenly not acceptable?

Well, the truth is that it was never acceptable, and I blame the large class sizes and the lack of time most teachers have for really scoring papers. It is sloppy grading, but when there is not enough planning time provided for professionals to work, they, like many others, have to cut time somewhere. It takes a tremendous amount of time to track down plagiarism without the use of one of these sites, and many school systems do not subscribe, or PAY, for their teachers to have and use this resource that makes detecting this problem much easier. So, as a consequence, students do not get caught in these cases of academic theft, and do not learn how to do things properly. Until now.

Please excuse me, there is some wailing, whining, moaning and groaning I have to deal with……….