Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a ninth grader, this post sums up what I don't like about this area.

My DD says her peers are beyond stressed. All they ever talk about is grades, and assignments. They freely share their test scores with everyone, and freak out over everything to the point that they're paralyzed and can't finish things (it might not be perfect). They have no personality or "fire in the belly" beyond their academics. Our DD says how she wishes we would move someplace where "people are normal, and nice". I have to agree with her more and more.

Hint: it's the parents here creating this atmosphere. The schools have to respond to it and we don't like it anymore than you do. I tell my students all the time intelligence presents itself in many more ways than academics and grades aren't everything. But they really believe they are. I asked them what it would be like if we didn't use grades in school and they looked like they wanted to die.

If I were OP's kid's teacher I wouldn't care at all he got a D. Their grade is their thing. But I would care he lied about submitting it and made me look bad to his parents.

-freshman teacher

You care about appearances and not pedagogy? This can’t be the first ninth grade kid you encountered who wasn’t doing his work... I’ve also taught freshmen. They are babies.

Hahahahaha you think pedagogy = grades?? Oh boy.

And no is not about appearances. It's about character. The kid lied to cover his own mess up and shifted blame to someone else. That lack of character would bother me.

"made me look bad to his parents" - sounds like appearances to me.

So you're going to stick to being obtuse then. It's because he made someone else look bad to avoid his OWN responsibility. I work with kids to
teach them responsibility and accountability so yeah, that more than the silly D would bother me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a ninth grader, this post sums up what I don't like about this area.

My DD says her peers are beyond stressed. All they ever talk about is grades, and assignments. They freely share their test scores with everyone, and freak out over everything to the point that they're paralyzed and can't finish things (it might not be perfect). They have no personality or "fire in the belly" beyond their academics. Our DD says how she wishes we would move someplace where "people are normal, and nice". I have to agree with her more and more.

Hint: it's the parents here creating this atmosphere. The schools have to respond to it and we don't like it anymore than you do. I tell my students all the time intelligence presents itself in many more ways than academics and grades aren't everything. But they really believe they are. I asked them what it would be like if we didn't use grades in school and they looked like they wanted to die.

If I were OP's kid's teacher I wouldn't care at all he got a D. Their grade is their thing. But I would care he lied about submitting it and made me look bad to his parents.

-freshman teacher

You care about appearances and not pedagogy? This can’t be the first ninth grade kid you encountered who wasn’t doing his work... I’ve also taught freshmen. They are babies.

Hahahahaha you think pedagogy = grades?? Oh boy.

And no is not about appearances. It's about character. The kid lied to cover his own mess up and shifted blame to someone else. That lack of character would bother me.

"made me look bad to his parents" - sounds like appearances to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a ninth grader, this post sums up what I don't like about this area.

My DD says her peers are beyond stressed. All they ever talk about is grades, and assignments. They freely share their test scores with everyone, and freak out over everything to the point that they're paralyzed and can't finish things (it might not be perfect). They have no personality or "fire in the belly" beyond their academics. Our DD says how she wishes we would move someplace where "people are normal, and nice". I have to agree with her more and more.

Hint: it's the parents here creating this atmosphere. The schools have to respond to it and we don't like it anymore than you do. I tell my students all the time intelligence presents itself in many more ways than academics and grades aren't everything. But they really believe they are. I asked them what it would be like if we didn't use grades in school and they looked like they wanted to die.

If I were OP's kid's teacher I wouldn't care at all he got a D. Their grade is their thing. But I would care he lied about submitting it and made me look bad to his parents.

-freshman teacher

You care about appearances and not pedagogy? This can’t be the first ninth grade kid you encountered who wasn’t doing his work... I’ve also taught freshmen. They are babies.

Hahahahaha you think pedagogy = grades?? Oh boy.

And no is not about appearances. It's about character. The kid lied to cover his own mess up and shifted blame to someone else. That lack of character would bother me.

OP, for next semester, engage earlier. You said you knew it was coming but the grades weren’t posted? So work with canvas or wherever the assignments are posted. Stop focusing on outcomes and start focusing on process.

Your kid didn’t do his work, which I am not defending, but It is certainly the case that once things go a bit out of control with kids, they often go seriously out of control. If your kid does all his work the rest of the term, he’ll probably get a B for the year without much struggle. But, that won’t happen without monitoring.

Also, I’m sure the presence of a sub played into the problems. Of course your kid is responsible to do his work, but timely grading is the responsibility of the teacher. If that had occurred, your kid would have been caught long before it was too late to change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a ninth grader, this post sums up what I don't like about this area.

My DD says her peers are beyond stressed. All they ever talk about is grades, and assignments. They freely share their test scores with everyone, and freak out over everything to the point that they're paralyzed and can't finish things (it might not be perfect). They have no personality or "fire in the belly" beyond their academics. Our DD says how she wishes we would move someplace where "people are normal, and nice". I have to agree with her more and more.

Hint: it's the parents here creating this atmosphere. The schools have to respond to it and we don't like it anymore than you do. I tell my students all the time intelligence presents itself in many more ways than academics and grades aren't everything. But they really believe they are. I asked them what it would be like if we didn't use grades in school and they looked like they wanted to die.

If I were OP's kid's teacher I wouldn't care at all he got a D. Their grade is their thing. But I would care he lied about submitting it and made me look bad to his parents.

-freshman teacher

You care about appearances and not pedagogy? This can’t be the first ninth grade kid you encountered who wasn’t doing his work... I’ve also taught freshmen. They are babies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately it is the end of the quarter. Are there any missing assignments that can be submitted at this point? DS does probably have some leverage if he had no indication of the grade until the end. Otherwise he just needs to make sure it does not happen again. Sounds like he is not applying to Harvard and colleges will over look a fluky low grade. Some only count core classes in the gpa calc too.

“Leverage”?!?! With DCUM, I knew there would be a parent who’d want to blame it on the teacher and bend the rules for the kid.

No. The kid knew he blew off assignments. It’s the kid’s responsibility. Don’t bail him out by trying to blame the teacher. Let him change his habits. Let him accept that he broke this and he can fix it himself. He doesn’t need mom and dad coming in aiming daggers at the teacher and demanding a grade change.

It is the teacher's job to provide feedback over the course of the term. They failed the student.

Though I think this is a two-way street, I do think it should have been clearer before now this kid was on the road to a D.

Pretty sure the kid knew that he had not done his work. By the time they are in HS it is their responsibility to keep track. Sorry, you can't really shift the blame on that one.

Relax. Who is shifting blame on "that one" or any one? That's why I said "two-way street." My only point is that, yes, teachers often do wait to enter grades until the end of the term, and that can be surprising. Since so much work is online--ie, kids don't often get back a paper test with a big red "D" on it anymore--so there is a less-frequent feedback loop. That said, of course there were clues the grade wasn't going to be good. When you hover even in B territory, and there are a number of still-missing grades, there's a statistical possibility you could reach a D if there are several tests or quizzes that are weighted more heavily than homework.

I maintain that it is a HS age child's own responsibility to keep track of his grades. The student knew that he missed assignments. He also knew that those missed assignments would receive a 0% score. The student knew how the grades would be calculated (weighting is in the syllabus). The teacher does not have an obligation to continually 'remind' a disinterested pupil.

Well I maintain that my kid wasn't ready in ninth to manage it, and that his Luddite teachers didn't make it any easier with electronic chaos. So I and a tutor worked on bringing his skills to where they needed to be and by the time senior year came around, he was there. Doing fine in college. We talk once a week and I see his grades once a semester.

It certainly doesn't require more than middle school math skills to calculate your grade. Why wasn't your child ready to do that in 9th grade? Jr High/HS is generally a good stopping point for hand-holding unless there as disabilities or delays.

Because he wasn’t. Isn’t that reason enough? The executive function skills were just not there and it was patently obvious.

It didn’t help that his particular teachers were not very organized... there were more platforms to check daily than he had classes. And calculating the grade isn’t the point, since this was about noticing all the work, then doing all the work and finally turning it in. He really wasn’t ready and why wasn’t important.

Freshman. Let him figure it out.