Nothing Special

Another Hot Day

Summer has blasted in.  I did not get my swim in today because I left school earlier than usual and the pool had not yet opened. It was a decision to hang around until it did or come home.  I opted for home.  Aside from covering a few bookcases, the classroom is in order, as are all my records.  Graduation is tomorrow night and that's it for the students. I will go in on Thursday to sign out officially. 

There were a few discussions today about grades.  Most of the students were fine with what they earned, but one or two had questions.  I did change one grade of a student who had written one of the required papers without the instruction sheet, so I gave him a few extra points.  He had actually turned in an extra essay so I know he wasn't making excuses. 

Another student questioned his exam grade, but I have reviewed his paper and I will have to stand by my grade on that one as he really did not follow the required format.  He is an excellent student, but he went off track partway through his essay. 

The third student is another matter altogether. He is in a computer class connected to his career class. There were only two requirements for that course, both of which I very clearly spelled out to all the students.  Each week, students were to submit a progress report of what they had accomplished in the class.  All this report needed was one sentence explaining what they had done, or a list of tasks accomplished.  The idea was not to demand pages of writing, but simply for them to be responsible to file a weekly report.  This particular student did not file a single report during the whole marking period.  He did, however, turn in a rather poor project--in this case a user manual for the invention he had created. (That counted as the other half of his grade.)

His explanation? Since he had completed his senior project--the invention--during the prior marking level, he had nothing to do for the fourth level, so he did not file any reports. However, he should have been using his class time to work on the user manual at the very least.  He then brought freshly printed progress reports to me today, reporting that he had been contacting people regarding his project. and meeting with people to get it set up in the museum where it will be displayed. 

Since the whole point of the progress reports was that they be turned in every week, I was not at all willing to accept them today--after the marking level was over and the grades turned in as required.  I suppose there is always a chance the Principal may change his grade, but I don't intend to know about it, nor to care. I stood firm and let him know he was in the wrong and earned exactly the grade he deserved.  I had sent a possible failure notice half way through the level, warning him of his status, and he did nothing.  Sooner or later, when you don't meet the requirements of a course--or a job--there are consequences to pay. 

It is a lesson I hope he will remember.