One of the most intelligent students in my school essentially decided not to graduate with his class. I have worked with him one on one for three years, watched him emerge as a phenomenal poet and thinker, and also observed him sabotage his own successes time and again. Poet left himself a credit short [...]

A recent article and a wonderful blog both focused on a middle school in Arlington where students receive some credit for not doing an assignment. Missing assignments are given a 50% instead of a zero grade. The logic behind this is that in a GPA scale, an A averaged with an F (for a 2.0 GPA) [...]

I came upon another article about class size and student success. According to the article’s author, “Small classes are more engaging places for students because they’re able to have a more personal connection with teachers, simply by virtue of the fact that there are fewer kids in the classroom competing for that teacher’s ...

My American Literature class is still giving me grief. Only 19 of 32 students initially turned in the summary (that number is now 27 out of 32), and now only 18 of 32 turned in the thesis paragraph assigned two weeks ago. Grrr! After I call all the parents, I’m not sure what I’ll do. These [...]

I thought I’d post some updates on the goings on I’ve discussed previously. When my class created bulletin boards about the 1920s for The Great Gatsby, things did not go exactly as planned. Being literal-minded students, almost everyone basically created the exact same research piece–exactly as I had written up the assignment. A ...

Is it possible to create a culture of failure? My school is currently being asked to discover why the Freshman failure rate is so high. 1/3 of the Freshmen failed a class during their first semester in high school, and statistically speaking 30% of Freshmen who fail a course in their first high school year do [...]

After reading a post by Mrs. Chili regarding the griping of her students when being held accountable for learning, I do have to admit a bit of frustration with one of my classes. Only 19 of my 32 American Literature students bothered to turn in a one-paragraph summary of a short story everyone read. This is [...]

The district agreed to help us bring down class sizes for freshmen and sophomores from 31-32 to 28, which would be great. This would mean a lowering of students per day of 15-20 students for some of the English teachers. 140 students a day sounds much better to me than 160. Just for perspective, when [...]

I had 155 students in five classes this semester, and I only had three students earn an ‘F’ grade. It feels great! I have wrestling districts this weekend, so I will try and post some ideas I have on another topic tonight before I leave town. Have a great weekend everyone! [...]

I finished the final grades in two of my classes, and for the first time ever, not one of my senior Mythology and Writing students failed the class. I know that sounds odd, and I’m not sure if it’s more of a commentary about my current or former students (or me then and now), but [...]