Six word Saturday

Mastery is not: do nothing, pass.


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Somehow we have sold the current students (not all, but the ones who struggle with passing a course because they have no idea how to behave in a class) that there will be a miracle in the last month of school and an assignment will be given to you that takes little effort on your part but results in you passing the course.

So, since they put no effort into the preceding 14 weeks, cram the last 4, they retain nothing.

In the higher level course I teach, I am having them rework the problems they miss on the test to raise the grade to just passing. Some are offended when I give it back when the rework is not complete or correct, with instructions of which ones they need to rework.

I keep giving them back anyway.

In one class, there is no miracle, there is no project already created. Since they insisted on talking about prom instead of listening to the new unit Friday, I don't see the need to create a project.

Prom is a month away.

Quick thought: find out the price of prom tickets and give them an impossible (or difficult) budget to follow.

Nah, work for me, no effort from them.

This is the class that has graduation tests to pass. Of the half who have tests to pass, 3 already cannot walk because the score on one test came back Friday and they did not pass.

They will ask for a waiver letter.

The one asked for this week should read like this:

She attended one of 12 classes we gave to help them pass this test in the fall.

She lied about having passed the fall test, so I did not give her the books I gave everyone else, notebooks they were allowed to write in and do work on their own.

I have no idea if she took advantage of the study group we set up for this as I don't teach it and she did not put my name in USATESTPREP so I could see her work.

When she struggles in trig, rather than ask me or the other 2 trig teachers for help, she asked the special ed teacher who, while certified in math, does not teach trig and he had to ask us for help before helping her.

She has the gall to ask me for a letter after cheating on my tests. When you give two versions, that is easy to see. She is not smart enough to cheat off of someone who actually knows the material.

But I will probably write one not quite so bitchy.

Although that did feel good.

These kids are going to struggle next year. Mommy can't help you then.