Sometimes I wonder what these kids are thinking.
Today was a kinda crazy day with two assemblies. The freshmen/seniors went to the Holiday assembly first period and my 29-student precalc class was down to 11. (Because the performers had to go too.) The sophomores/juniors went 6th period, which cut that class from 19 to 3. Tomorrow is Grandparents' Day, so anyone with a grandparent attending (or presenting to grandparents) will be gone 2nd - 5th.
I told the precalc kids at the beginning of the week that they had two quizzes to do either today or tomorrow depending on what day they're here (or one each day if they're here both days). One was our weekly Algebra Review quiz and one was a solving triangles quiz using Law of Sines/Cosines.
Everything was fine. Kids who were here 1st period chose a quiz to complete (look how nice I am - I let them pick which one to do!). During my next class, one of the boys from first period stopped in asking if he could miss class tomorrow. One of the social studies teachers is skyping with some soldiers in Afghanistan, which is awesome. I told him that was fine and asked when he was going to take his quizzes and he got a blank look on his face. Oh. Quizzes? He left saying he'd ask another teacher if he could miss their class instead.
One of my freshmen told me in the middle of their solving systems quiz that she just couldn't get the graphs right. She just kept trying and erasing and trying again. I don't know if she was angling for some help, but I just told her to put something down... something's better than nothing! It was a weird situation.
After school a girl stopped in. She's not one to go out of her way to do math (actually, she tells me quite often how much she hates math and doesn't want to do it... and yes, this is a precalculus student) so I was somewhat surprised to see her here. But then when she started out by saying, "I know you said you wouldn't give us extra points, but. . ." I knew what she was after. She was concerned that her grade wasn't where she wanted it to be and asked if I would give her something to get more points. I told her that's what I've been doing this whole quarter. I also told her very nicely that if she was concerned about getting ready for the exam I'd be more than happy to go over stuff with her or look at old tests/quizzes to help clear things up, but I wouldn't be giving her anything for points. (A friend of hers who I also have in class was standing in the doorway encouraging her to get help by going over mistakes. Bonus points for that one!) The girl walked out of my room without another word. I don't think I won her "Favorite Teacher" vote with that one.
One more day.
5 comments:
Our kids are all bats**t crazy today!! I really wish I was across the hall from you because I'd have told her what you really wanted to say. :)
I'm like you - I don't know what they're thinking this time of year. And you still have exams when you get back after break?! I can't imagine. I'm glad we're getting our stuff over with NOW and starting new courses.
But I know I will be looking for a local firing range this weekend and asking for membership dues for my Christmas present. Either that or I'll need bail money.
Praying for both you and @approx_normal. Hopefully tomorrow goes quickly and you get some nice downtime over the break!
I so wish we had exams before break! These kids have enough trouble remembering something over a weekend, but to take a big test two weeks from now?! Crazy. Instead, we come back for 3 days of school and then exams. Doesn't make sense. It would definitely make these last days less painful if we had exams now.
I like my job too much to say what I wanted to say. :) But I appreciate your offer to take care of that for me!
And Mark, what's downtime? I don't understand.
:)
I had a parent come into the office complaining that I was making her student take a test after he had been out 3 days in the past two weeks. He didn't go to tutoring to seek the help he needed on one topic and while he was welcome to review my notes, all the answers weren't there (for him to just copy). And he was in all 3days we have covered this particular topic. He has a different lunch than I, and I wouldn't meet with him during his lunch (because I have students). When asked if he would take the test on Friday instead of Thursday, mom said "no, he won't be in school Friday. BECAUSE IT WAS THE END OF THE WORLD!!"
I assured her that while the Mayans were very good mathematicians, that they were wrong on this and the world wasn't going to end.
Now he's got a test to take upon his return, any bets on how he'll do?
I'd love to know the results!
And if this woman really believed that the world was going to end because the Mayans said so, she has bigger problems than her son not taking a test. :)
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