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I have to disagree on improper association between test material and homework. When I see students do all the homework and fail the tests, it's usually students who just copied someone elses homework. I'll see the same wrong answers over and over on homework assignments. I tell the kids it does them no good to copy someone elses work but they do it anyway. Then come test time, they have no clue.
In my class, you can, easily, do all the homework and fail the class because of the tests. Homework is 15% of your grade. Tests, however, are 50%. The rest is labs and projects. So you need to pass the tests to pass the class.
Your class is the way it should be, IMO. My point is that not every teacher sees it the way you do. In high school I graduated with a "B", because I was easily passing every test, even though I didn't do a lick of homework. In junior high school however, the teachers were hell bent on making you do homework regardless of whether you passed the tests or not. Kids copying the homework is a valid reason - another of the numbers I mentioned above - but you have to think of the reason why they're doing that. Did they try, not understand and felt they had to cheat? Or did they just feel like it was pointless? It might be they just didn't understand the material, which falls into the categories I mentioned.
And yes, there are definitely instances where the homework and tests don't match each other. I recall a Biology course where the homework consisted mostly of reading a large book and memorizing certain sections. Come final exam time, the test questions had nothing to do with the book material; it was all about the practical things we did in class.
I think you are probably a good teacher, Ivory. It seems like you are focused on your students learning and not just getting them passed through the system. That is important.
My biggest problem probably stems from the fact that I think people are inherently lazy and will, as you have mentioned, abuse any system that allows them second, third, however many chances.
It's human nature, it's animal nature, it's just nature to take the path of least resistance...my dog isn't going to hunt for her food if I keep feeding her twice a day.
They even did this experiment...they put this cd on the internet and said you could download it for any price you wanted. 80% of people paid nothing.
I don't think your examples of real life exactly fit the school model, b/c we are not expecting students to do things under ridiculous circumstances (or wait for someone else to get his part done) - if one student can do it right and on time, the others should be able to, as well.
Look, at some point in our lives, we all have to stand alone and say, "I own this." Own the work, the consequences, the failures, the repercussions, the rewards.
We are not teaching this enough to our children, as evidenced by countless numbers of people who expect something for nothing, take out loans for things they want that they don't want to work for, abuse credits cards, abuse their families, remorsefully commit crimes, etc.
Parents are ultimately responsible, but school should not become another place where 'anything goes' and 'who cares'? B/c I fear that's where we're heading.
Some people are gonna bust tail and get it done and be hypercompetitive no matter what, but you may lose that middle group of students that need the prodding and encouragement. And again, we will see an major increase in the divide between the have and the have-nots. Because you don't deserve to have if you didn't bother to work for it.
Dropping the F grade is the dumbest idea since dog sweaters. Bending over backwards to help kids pass so they won't ever ever ever feel bad about anything is idiotic. What are they gonna do when they get out into the real world and all that coddling is gone?
I think you are probably a good teacher, Ivory. It seems like you are focused on your students learning and not just getting them passed through the system. That is important.
My biggest problem probably stems from the fact that I think people are inherently lazy and will, as you have mentioned, abuse any system that allows them second, third, however many chances.
It's human nature, it's animal nature, it's just nature to take the path of least resistance...my dog isn't going to hunt for her food if I keep feeding her twice a day.
They even did this experiment...they put this cd on the internet and said you could download it for any price you wanted. 80% of people paid nothing.
I don't think your examples of real life exactly fit the school model, b/c we are not expecting students to do things under ridiculous circumstances (or wait for someone else to get his part done) - if one student can do it right and on time, the others should be able to, as well.
Look, at some point in our lives, we all have to stand alone and say, "I own this." Own the work, the consequences, the failures, the repercussions, the rewards.
We are not teaching this enough to our children, as evidenced by countless numbers of people who expect something for nothing, take out loans for things they want that they don't want to work for, abuse credits cards, abuse their families, remorsefully commit crimes, etc.
Parents are ultimately responsible, but school should not become another place where 'anything goes' and 'who cares'? B/c I fear that's where we're heading.
Some people are gonna bust tail and get it done and be hypercompetitive no matter what, but you may lose that middle group of students that need the prodding and encouragement. And again, we will see an major increase in the divide between the have and the have-nots. Because you don't deserve to have if you didn't bother to work for it.
We, definitely, have a generation and a half who think they are owed something for nothing. THAT I blame on parents telling little Suzy how SPECIAL she is from the time she poo'd her first diaper. Kids are used to praise for the slightest amount of effort. They don't take kindly to having to work for things.
I do think that it's sometimes understanable that a student not have something done on time. After all, I'm only one of their 7 teachers and we don't get together and decide when/what to assign. It's very concievable that a student may find themselves, from time to time, overwhelmed and unable to do everything on time, just like the real world. The problem is when it happens all the time.
I agree you won't have if you don't work for it. That's the message I can't seem to get across to my kids. I wish there was a system in place with increasing penalties for missed/late work/failing grades. Like having to stay after school or come in early or go on Saturday. Something the kids would feel and not want to do. That would actually be closer to real life becasue in real life, if you can't get your work done in your normal work day, you get to work OT.
I wish I had the answers. I know this, next year I will not be as lenient as I was this year with late assignments. I'm thinking I'll pass out 3 late homework passes at the beginning of each semester. After a student uses them up, then it's 10% off per day until the assignment is only worth 50% of it's orginal grade. I don't believe in zeros. They're too hard to recover from. If there are 10 points from an A to a B and 10 points from a B to a C and 10 points from a C to a D, then there ought to be 10 points from a D to an E not 60.
Dropping the F grade is the dumbest idea since dog sweaters. Bending over backwards to help kids pass so they won't ever ever ever feel bad about anything is idiotic. What are they gonna do when they get out into the real world and all that coddling is gone?
They'll learn fast or fall on their faces. Of course if it's the latter, they'll blame everyone but themselves.
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