Whew! Friday is finally here! It is inexplicable, any week with a workday always ends up being more exhausting. Why is that? As mentioned earlier this week, Monday was a teacher workday, a day without students - a chance to catch up and, for the lucky, get ahead. But for some reason, the ease of Monday has been made up for in the remainder of the week. That is to say, I had five days worth of stress crammed into four days. Ugh!
Report cards for the third quarter were distributed today. In most cases, the students are not surprised since most teacher will give their students a grade report at the end of the marking quarter. One of my students, I cannot remember if I mentioned this student before, is one of the biggest "trouble students" I have taught in a LONG time. That being said, she easily failed for the third quarter (note, since Wake County uses a "block schedule," each course is only one semester long). Her average was a 50%, literally. But my experience has taught me that a student that feels they have no chance to pass a class is going to be a bigger distraction to other classmates. As a result, I have adopted a policy of giving those students a chance by bumping their failing grade from, in this case, a 50% to a 63%. Although a 63% is still failing, it only requires the student to earn a 77% in the second half of the course in order to go into the final exam with a passing grade. Most students who need this boost, usually start off the 4th quarter (or 2nd quarter if it is the 1st semester) really well. Keep in mind that "really well" is a relative term. But in the least, they start out with much greater effort. So this semester's "trouble student" is off to a much better start. In fact, she has committed herself to this class since it seems that mine is the only class she has a chance to pass this semester. My hope is that her behavior will respond accordingly since she will very much want to pay attention in class and keep up with her work. I am hopeful, but unfortunately, not optimistic. Updates to come.
The office is coming together. I have been moving slowly this week with putting the office back together with the new furniture. I have assembled the desk and hutch and I plan on moving the computer from the folding table to the desk before assembling the other pieces. I am getting excited for it to be done. And even better, I am excited to purge my office clutter. Much of what came out of the office will not return!
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