Throw me a  bone

One more day and then it is summer.  It is not even a full day.  I have to get through one more hour today and grade 1 set of finals.

Then I am done--done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yippeeeee!

It's been a  dramatic week.

4 seniors earned Fs in my class--not even high Fs that I could manipulate into Ds--less than 57% Fs. They are not graduating on time.  What a shame.  One texted his mother that he felt like killing himself.  She came up to school crying.  I told her the grade stood--but we'd get the kid into the crisis counselor to deal with him emotional state.  She tried to tell me how hard the kids life is.  I'm sorry the kids life is hard--but grades are a number--they are not adjusted for trauma.  All of my students have a story to tell and if I changed grades on account of them--a whole lot of kids would be getting grades they didn't earn.  I told her that if she was sooo concerned--she should have come after the first progress report or after the second one--but that now was too late!

That was on Monday.  On Tuesday I got an e-mail from a parent telling me I didn't know how to grade. Wasn't that charming???  I e-mailed her back with why it was graded the way it was and she backed down.  Why oh why do parents do this??????  I mean I understand having a question--but she straight out told me I graded his paper incorrectly.  Sigh. IF she would have asked before jumping all over me--she would have realized a very important fact---without the paper her kid had a 77.4--which rounds to a 77--with the paper he had a 76.9 which rounds to a 77--therefore the paper wasn't what was keeping her son from getting a good grade in my class.  I sent home a copy of the kid's progress report for his momma to see.  Sigh!

I had one crying yesterday because she's getting a D+ instead of a C-.  This was a child who was more interested in score keeping for the baseball team than she was for in any of her classes.  I sure hope she got a cute boyfriend from the baseball team--because her grades went down in all of her classes.  If she had spent 1/10th of the amount of time on my class that she spent on the baseball team--she'd have an A.

I need to get out of here and have all of thiis stuff be Gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wanna hear the kicker??? I won a Wii--there was a raffle here at school and I bought tickets thinking what the heck--it was a good cause.  Now--everyone keeps telling me a Wii is fun--but quite frankly I don't like video games. I am giving it to my cousin's husband because he is very very good to my parents.  He comes by every 2-3 weeks to see if they need him to do anything.  He's a nice guy.

I bought end of the year presents for the support staff--they are all thrilled. I gave them sees candy.  Yummy!

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #3 Comment from jckfrstross 
  6/6/08 2:50 PM | Permalink

  you amaze me:) thank you for being a teacher who cares:) as far as i am concerned we need more teachers like you!!!!!
  
  Deb
• #2 Comment from lv2trnscrb 
  6/5/08 1:04 PM | Permalink

  you know, my son was in danger of failing last year and not graduating; thank you Lord he didn't, but I never blamed the teachers, I knew whose fault it was (my son's); I can honestly tell you his economics teacher and american government teacher gave him a D- to allow him to graduate because there was no way my son deserved it; did I run with it and take it? you bet ya I did because I knew if he didn't graduate, he would never go back and finish; do I wish he did better, you bet ya too, but I can rest with the assurance that he had all the opportunities available, he just didn't want to take advantage of them
  
  you can do this!! just 1 more day!! Congrats on winning the Wii! at certain times of the year, Christmas, they have been hard to find and fought over
  
  yum, See's candy
  
  hope you have a nice summer after you have your surgery, I hope you make a quick recovery
  
  betty
• #1 Comment from frankandmary 
  6/5/08 11:04 AM | Permalink

  So the mom actually thought her child would kill himself over a grade, & all she was worried about was your changing the grade?  That is amazing. The grade would not be the point here if that were my child. I think changing the grade would make it worse. Someone like that comes up with multiple inequities they see in everything, at such a young age.  The grade is wrong, not my participation or lack thereof.  Even if he is not truly suicidal, & I hope he is not, a terrible, forever disappointing way of looking at life. ~Mary
  http://journals.aol.com/frankandmary/JustMary/