Please help me to understand. A high school student who complains about the way the class is being taught is given the opportunity to watch a movie to take notes about some key points in order to prepare for an open-notes quiz in which they can turn in the notes for extra credit chooses to fall asleep during the movie, or passes notes, or plays with their iPod, or texts others with their cell phone. I know by asking to make sense out of the irrational (a teenager) itself does not make sense, but this is the type of uphill battle I must fight on a regular basis. I give notes in class, the student puts her head down; I give a work sheet, the student fusses with her cell phone; I put on a movie (a "real" movie - academy award-winning type movie, not a documentary), and the student passes notes across the class. How can I win?
I have given her special opportunities to turn in assignments and make up tests by creating a calendar with the dates to take the tests, she fails them miserably. Please explain to me how I a supposed to accountable for this same student who has been absent one-third of the school days this marking quarter? And yet "No Child Left Behind" says that this is a negative reflection on me! That when this happens, the school fails. Well, I have a simple message to those who may agree: sometimes it is the student who fails.
No comments:
Post a Comment