Grading Day

Today was a grading day and it left a sour taste in my mouth. I have a lot of kids failing and it bothers me.

I don't feel like I'm doing a bad job. I feel like I've set a bar and it's probably too low, but kids either don't care or don't realize that I'm going to hold them accountable to it. I assigned a mid-term review packet in lieu of doing a test this quarter. I wanted to motivate kids to help themselves by making it a serious grade and simultaneously avoid giving them a test right before the midterm. A lot of it was sheer participation and I even gave class time. I figured if anyone was motivated they wouldn't have to do anything at home.

And yet, nearly half the kids didn't turn it in.

A zero on a test that's largely participation when tests are 40% of your grade?

Ouch.

A lot of kids have a "2nd quarter" slump, but I was really disappointed. 

However, I plan on holding them accountable. The ones who turned it in did okay on the midterm and have good quarter grades to match. A few latecomers have near panicked and signed up to come in for help finishing nearly a month after the midterm (if you include the holidays). Others seem not to care or not to think that it will really matter.

I feel like most students have learned a lot of math in my class, but I'm hoping they ALL learn some real world skills.....like show up and turn work in if you want it to count for anything.

I think a lot about how I teach. I'm not going to do another review packet this year, but I may still do one next year to teach the kids a lesson in "JUST TURN IT IN!"

Typing in the failing grades made me wonder about how kids were doing in other classes.

One of my top class skippers had an A in a class 1st quarter and an F 2nd. I was curious, so I clicked and noticed the teacher had typed in 8 out of 15 assignments as missing. However, they never typed in a grade, so the student had a 98% in their class.

A 98%. That was with 53.3% of their grades not turned in and somehow the teacher either never noticed or never bothered to fix it.

By that teacher's standard, I could take off 3rd of the school year, keep my job, and even qualify for a professional honor society.

That bothered me. It could be an honest mistake (I make enough of those). Still, I was already feeling a bit lousy about how low my grades were and seeing mistakes I found in other gradebooks made me think the bar for teachers was too low.

Maybe their math teachers in high school never held them accountable enough....

It's hard to really know how you're doing in teaching until it's all said and done. It's easy to see your own daily mistakes, but hard to see how some intangible gains play out. That kid who has a rough home life, but you try to greet every day? The score on their tests may not improve, but if they don't drop out because an English teacher actually reads their journals and writes back?

The little victories every day matter. The big victories are often a culmination of being faithful with all the little things. God's got a plan and I figure it's always in motion.