12 days left. . . . .I'm striking the up the drums

I did the unforgivable today. I gave my World History classes a project that is due on the last day of classes. They will be presenting their projects on this day. Many of them do NOT plan on coming to school; I suggested they turn in their work early—the get bonus points for doing so. I am expecting a lot of early projects, because none of them want to come to school after Memorial Day. I am planning on spending exam time grading all of my early projects.

School District Rant: How am really upset about how my school district, parents, administration and students handles make-up work. I have a lot of students who are absent a lot! In one of my classes I have a student C, who in previous terms comes to school about 2-3 days per week. About 3 weeks ago, his mother called the school upset b/c no one would give her son make up work for the first semester. HELLO, WE ARE IN THE SECOND SEMESTER!!! She ended up talking to our curriculum principal, who told her that she would have to talk to the individual teachers. Most of the teachers are tenured and have been teaching for years. Their answers were “no, absolutely not.” I am not tenured. . . .so here goes my story: Mrs. C would not give up. I explained to her that it was not fair for her to complete work that other students had done on time and were diligent about their attendance. She stated that his attendance should not matter. At any rate, she proceeded to berate me (I could tell she wanted to curse me.) I told her that I would speak with my supervisor and let her know. We decided that this student would sign a contract to do some additional work. Today, she calls back wanting to know how the child did. I explained to her that I have NOT finished grading C's work. She wants to know when I will finish grading that work. Why should I grade 25 pages worth of work on my OWN time when the child didn’t make time to do the original work? I don’t plan on grading a sheet of it b/c I don’t have time for it. I just filled out the grade change form for the lowest possible passing grade. It is not right—or ethical in my opinion. The principal even agreed it wasn’t right but we had to try to help the student pass.

Is this what school is supposed to be, kids are given grades? Kids are passed along to avoid the hassle of parents who decided to wait until the end of the year to do something about their failing child. Life does not treat you this way. You rarely, Rarely, RARELY get the opportunity to make up for things you have failed to do because of sheer laziness. I fail show for my job, can I say I’m sorry about that, give me another shot. No, I would be released from my position. Imagine if I didn’t meet my deadlines over and over again. Life does not work the way we are handling them at school. A child’s parents can’t get them out of sticky situations once they are adults. Excuses don’t matter in the REAL WORLD.

I have another child, N, who skips out for 3 to 4 weeks at a time. They bring her parents in to truancy court and you know they decide to withdraw her, but N shows up to school about 1 week later reenrolled. This has happened 3 or 4 times this year. Each time N comes back, N assumes they should be able to make up work. I talked with the discipline principal this time AND guess what he agreed that N shouldn’t be allowed to make up the work. So yaaaah. . .so I guess I won one today.
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Another edition of the “Preacha’s” saga: Today, he let cheerleader know that she would be perfect for him b/c she’s shorter than he is, she’s smart and quiet. She was very nice about it all. She laughed while he was saying all these things, but tomorrow, I’ll get the skinny on how she feels about his advances toward making her the girlfriend or “future preacha’s wife.” LOL. My lunch hour was hilarious today, as I sat in my classroom and listen to him try to “talk” to her. I told him he was too young to settle down, he said “all my preacher friends have girlfriends, so I should have one too.” Peer pressure even affects preachas.