Of course, my district waited until 6 am to announce a delay, so I was already up, dressed, and had my hand on the door when they announced it...so I went to school anyway. The roads were clear and all was smooth sailing, just very cold.
Since I had a little extra time, I decided to check out a few things on my gradebook. As a result, here is the sign my kids saw when they walked into class today:
I also printed out a missing assignment list for every one of the 106 students with missing assignments and announced that every single one needs to be returned by Friday with a parent signature on it, or I will call home on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday if I need to.I wouldn't normally take such drastic measures, but I am so irritated by these numbers. I have as many as 50% of my kids failing in some classes and there is really no reason for it. On Wednesday (assuming we have school) we will be having a work day and those 27 kids missing tests? Yeah...they'll be taking it during class, whether or not they are ready. I have some that are missing tests from back in October!!!! I told one woman that her daughter was missing two tests, and her response was "well, she has basketball practice, so I don't know if she can come to do those after school." My response was mostly a blank stare. Seriously????
What makes it worse is that I keep getting pressure to do something about the high failure rate at my school. Well, I can lead a horse to water, in fact, I can hold his head under the water or shove a tube down his throat...but if that horse does not want to drink, I cannot make him do it. And these horses are NOT interested in drinking.
4 comments:
darn those horses! If they worked half as hard as you they would all be going ivy league.
106 with missing assignments? That is just insanity. And I'd say you're way nice to take that late work. I don't do that after the day after it was due. I make sure the parents know the grades, and figure if they don't care, how can I make them or their kid care? It's shocking to me the number of FOURTH GRADE parents who already don't care, or are too busy with their own lives, or too busy making excuses for their kid. My kids aren't that old yet, but it cannot be that hard.
No delay this morning, but you can bet your bottom dollar there will be tomorrow b/c we're supposed to have a music program rehearsal all am and dress rehearsal in the pm, so I wouldn't actually be teaching. So we'll have a delay. :/
i love ur note on the board...it's the engineer in me that loves to see the numbers. i'm a geek. i know. so far in life, my geekness has paid off though!
WOW!! That is bad...like really bad. I have always been impressed at your organization to write it all on the board for them to see. How did you like that late start today?!
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