Double Jeopardy
We got an e-mail from Hammer letting us know of some new policy that will be put into effect. It appears that if there is a student who is just not turning in any work in then we can send them to an after school program and have the work that they didn’t do the first time meet them there. If the students and their guardians opt not to participate in this, then the school is going to discipline the student by giving them a Saturday class. If you’re not familiar with Saturday class, then think Breakfast Club except the kids aren’t played by adults who have had months to practice snappy dialogue. See:
A couple of things:
First, students have the chance to do the work when I assign the work. I have to give them a 50 if they scribble on a piece of paper. Isn’t that already cutting them enough slack? Why in the world would somebody, who knows they can get half-credit for hardly doing anything and chooses to not even do that much, get a chance to do all of the work when not in school?
Well if your answer to that last question is because they will receive punishment with that Saturday class, then that brings me to my next point. Failure is their punishment. It’s something where they can pick themselves up, dust themselves off and try again. Their second chance shouldn’t come in receiving the work that they rejected in the first place again. Their second chance comes in something I call, the next assignment! If you want to send them to their room without dinner, then let some else do that. Besides, can you even stick a kid in a Saturday class (something used for behavior issues) for academic reasons? If that’s the case, then they need to sweep this whole freakin’ school.
I don’t know. I mean sometimes I feel more like an educator than a teacher. By educator I mean where test scores, graduation rates and attendance are gold even if it can stunt learning. I better stop here, though; that’s a whole other rant. Besides, I have to get some of this make-up work ready for a girl who declared last month that my class is no fun and hasn’t taken her head off her desk since. I’ve spoken to her parents, notified her counselor and nothing. Now let’s force her!
A couple of things:
First, students have the chance to do the work when I assign the work. I have to give them a 50 if they scribble on a piece of paper. Isn’t that already cutting them enough slack? Why in the world would somebody, who knows they can get half-credit for hardly doing anything and chooses to not even do that much, get a chance to do all of the work when not in school?
Well if your answer to that last question is because they will receive punishment with that Saturday class, then that brings me to my next point. Failure is their punishment. It’s something where they can pick themselves up, dust themselves off and try again. Their second chance shouldn’t come in receiving the work that they rejected in the first place again. Their second chance comes in something I call, the next assignment! If you want to send them to their room without dinner, then let some else do that. Besides, can you even stick a kid in a Saturday class (something used for behavior issues) for academic reasons? If that’s the case, then they need to sweep this whole freakin’ school.
I don’t know. I mean sometimes I feel more like an educator than a teacher. By educator I mean where test scores, graduation rates and attendance are gold even if it can stunt learning. I better stop here, though; that’s a whole other rant. Besides, I have to get some of this make-up work ready for a girl who declared last month that my class is no fun and hasn’t taken her head off her desk since. I’ve spoken to her parents, notified her counselor and nothing. Now let’s force her!
- H.T. at 7:00 AM
