You can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish.
Young man approaches me before class and stands next to me as I peruse the traffic for any signs of malfeasance. He stands there a while. Finally, I ask, "hey bud, what can I do for you?"
He: "Ms. Cornelius, I gotta get my grade up in your class. I gotta be able to play tonight!"
Me: "Okay, do you have any of the work you owe me that's already due?" (He has a an IEP with extended deadlines.)
He: "No...."
Me: "Okay, well, did you get ready for the extra credit quiz I am giving on places in the news?"
He: "But I don't WATCH the news!"
Me: "Right, so that's why I told you about it on Monday and repeated it every day this week. So you could earn extra credit by watching the news."
He: But I gotta get my grade up so I can play tonight! What should I do?"
Me: (sighhhhhhhhhhhh.......)
Labels: accountability, grades
posted by "Ms. Cornelius" @ 5:51 PM
9 Comments:
Heh. Been there, done that. My company loves your misery...
I can tune a fish. I just need to run up and down the scales a few times....
I like to tell students like this one, "Go home. Get in your time machine. Go back to Monday and do what I told you to do this week."
And my misery joins yours. I don't even want to post about this week, whose only redeeming feature is that it is over.
Sad and typical. Hopefully the kid will learn something before adulthood sets in.
He is lucky to have those options. We are not allowed to give extra credit at all.
Ha ha ha Tim. That was great.
And NYC, I am none too sanguine about that possibility. Sadly there is a box of rocks out there looking for it's missing member.
Ahhh, I think we've all been there. For some reason our entitled group of kiddos seem to think that, because they don't like it they shouldn't have to do it.
Keep it up! We'd be remiss in our duty as teachers if we didn't spend a little time teaching students that the rules apply to them.
6 week period ended Friday. Three weeks ago the football players started coming in, asking what they could do to make sure they had everything done. Same with the volleyball team. Same with the basketball team. All of them on potentially winning seasons . . .
Thursday night, the star quarterback took a hard hit on the head, and didn't get up. Probably going to be paralysis. The team lost a close one, first loss of the season. We've got a real time experiment in how athletics can influence academics for the better.
I really enjoyed that period when the jocks were leading the academic way, though. I hope they continue.
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