Why now?

[Newbie]

Our school ends at the end of this month. Why are parents just now asking me how they can help their children bring up their grades?? My answer - study! 9 times out of 10, when a child fails a test, and I ask if they studied, they say no. Well, there's not much I can do for you if you put in no effort.

 

[Carolyn]

because

parents think we can work miracles. I also tell them that while the child is doing the extra work to catch up, he/she is falling behind on what he/she needs to learn right now. It's a pointless exercise, in my opinion to do extra work. I usually always gave a flat out "no" to catch-up/ make-up work when I was a classroom teacher.

 

[Ima Teacher]

You gotta love that. What can he/she do to bring up grades? Hmmm. . . considering these are ZERO grades, it's either that the kids didn't do the work when it was assigned or they didn't offer to see if they missed anything while absent.

One sits and does NOTHING every day. NOTHING! Yet I sign his planner and write in his work EVERY DAY as his mother requests. I write what he did in class, what he needs to do at home, and what he failed to turn in. And she's still surprised when he's got a zero. Well, he's have to DO SOME WORK in order for me to give him credit for anything.

TEN MORE DAYS

 

[Newbie]

Extra work

I never assign extra credit. Every now and then I offer a bonus question on tests or something like that, but I don't give out extra projects. I appreciate their asking to do extra work instead of just wanting me to change grades, but I see it like this: if you didn't do the regular work, I'm not giving extra work. Just do what you're supposed to do all quarter, and you'll be fine.

The kids I have problems with don't have zeroes, but they do have some seriously low test grades.

 

[fun_friend]

Our school has "Saturday School." Kids show up to do stuff they shoulda woulda coulda done on time. I give them all the missing assignments, but the kids rarely do a respectable job on it and end up getting low grades anyway. I feel that they shouldn't get any more credit for doing makeup work of low quality even if they might fail the class. These same kids find themselves cooling their jets in ISS and I send in the laundry list of work they need to do. They'd rather sleep or draw versus get their assignments done. They send me notes about how they "didn't have time" to do assignments. Yeah yeah yeah.

I don't give special projects or extra credit to these kids, or any kids. Honestly, I don't have time to grade all the regular work I assign and won't make time to grade extra credit.

 

[mlg]

Extra Credit

It just frosts my cookies to have to go through the time and effort to write out for the umpteenth time a list of all the missing work that a kiddo chose not to do when it was supposed to be turned in. This especially bugs me for the kids whose assignment books I sign off on every single day at the parents' request (under the agreement that they would check that the work was done at home and sign off on it from their end). IF THEY HAD FOLLOWED THROUGH ON THEIR END OF THE BARGAIN IN THE FIRST PLACE, THEY'D ALREADY KNOW THAT JUNIOR OR LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE HADN'T DONE THE WORK!!! What's up with that?? Oh well, 29 more days to go, but who's counting??!!

 

[Quatro]

Makes you want to laugh or cry

I always ask the parent do they see the child's weekly work and assignment book. I love the ones who say yes. I do not do extra credit. IF they do not take the opportunities given to meet the basic requirements then why should I go above for them. I will not take so much of my time next year to write notes weekly about missing work-too much time and no returns.

 

[anonymouse]

Don't you want to say

Where were you when I wrote you notes ALL year saying your child isn't doing well. I had written and called one mother OVER AND OVER this year. She never called me back. The day before report cards went home last semester she called the principal "to express her concern." It just kills me.

 

[Mrs. G]

We're all in the same boat!

I glad to hear that others face these same questions so late in the year. I politely tell parents that their child needs to complete all assignments on time and study for his tests if he wants to bring his grade up.

 

[Nessa]

Progress Reports

My school sends out mid-quarter progress reports this week. I am expecting a slew of phone calls/ notes from parents. Almost every child in my class has dropped in some subjects, they have already given up for the year.
This time I am attaching a print out of everything their child is still missing at this point. Our computer based grading system will do it all for us, so it's not too time consuming.
Hopefully there will be fewer phone calls asking why little Susie only has a 45 average!

 

[SoCalTeach]

"Extra Credit"

It also kills me when parents want you to 'magically' come up with some report for little Johnny to do so he could raise his grade in whatever subject. Never mind that all year I've been writing mom about him rushing through his work, which results in low scores. Just last week she wrote in his weekly folder, "Any ideas for bringing up his grade?" - uh, yeah, look back at my comments on his 1st quarter report card!!!

 

[c green]

Because the parents have reached a point where they can no longer pretend that little Johnny is telling the truth when he says it's no big deal, and he's doing better now.

My favorite "can't he just do a report?" story:

Toward the end of last year, a student asked for emergency extra credit, and I did, actually, for various bad reasons, assign him a report, on a historical topic of his choice.

He turned in a very long, very hard to read report about Christopher Columbus. Assuming that this kid, bright as he was, had not written the words 'from his humble origins in the thriving Renaissance town of Genoa'...it was something like that...I Googled a few phrases, and found the original article.

I told him that I wasn't even going to kick his butt for plagiarizing. Worse. I was going to insist he rewrite the thing in his own words.

This ended up with a parent conference in which the parent genuinely did not understand why this was a problem, and eventually uttered the now famous (at least in my family) line--"In this day and age, can you really expect a thirteen-year-old to have anything original to say about Christopher Columbus?"

Fade to black.