Students have to earn their grades

Josh Adams

Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 | 3:19 p.m.

Alright, so a lot has happened since the last blog... it's hard to know where to begin.

Grades have been posted for the first quarter. Students in my classes are all over the map, some A's, some F's and everything in between. Most of the students with a passing grade actually tried, and most of the ones with F's didn't turn in any homework. There is only so much I as a teacher can do to help students pass my class. If I get no homework to grade, I can't record a grade other than incomplete, which counts as zero points. If a student won't attempt to pass, I'm certainly not going to pass them.

There is nothing more frustrating to a teacher than a student who comes to class everyday but turns in no work. I've heard of teachers in other schools giving students like this a 55 percent so that the students can potentially fix their mistakes and raise their grade to a passing score before the quarter ends. Forgive me, but this represents a complete failure on our part in teaching the students responsibility. Yes, I understand that a 55 percent is still a failing grade, but how many of you would be able to go to work and fail at your job 48 days in a row, come in and do well the last five days and still keep your jobs? No, if you want a 55% in my class, you can turn in the homework late every day. I do not give grades, students earn them. Now, I apologize for using the last several minutes to rant, especially when I haven't received any calls from irate parents or administrators, but I hate seeing students fail, even when the responsibility for failure isn't mine. I want all my students to do well, just as you want your children to do well, but not at the expense of learning what consequences their choices bring.

Now, on to second quarter. There are not many grades posted in my classes yet, because we haven't been in the second quarter very long. However, as of right now, things are progressing fairly well. We had last Friday off for Nevada Day, a welcome vacation for everyone. The students had Tuesday off for staff development day. Of course, this means that half the students decided that Monday was a day they should skip. Basically, this amounted to a wasted day for most teachers. It is very difficult to cover new material on a day that most students are missing. However, it is not fair to the ones that do show up to not punish those who skipped. I made a tough call, and I stick by my decision. I moved on, just as planned. The students who were in class received the benefit of learning the new material, and the truants will have to make that lesson up, either by staying after school, receiving the notes from another student or learning it on their own. Since those who were absent did not have to turn in their homework from the previous lesson, I did not ask for the homework from any of the students who attended, either. I feel this was the most fair way to handle the situation. The alternative would be to give everyone a free day, which basically tells the students that if enough of them skip, Mr. Adams won't cover new material and no harm is done -- not a good lesson to be taught.

This weekend is a four-day weekend for Veterans Day. I'm thinking of some new techniques to try next week to improve the amount of homework that gets turned in. I'll let you know how that works.