When it comes to grading, I don’t mind the small assignments and daily check-off work. It’s the large papers and projects, which consume so much time and cause me stress. I want to get those papers back to the students and off my desk! Thus, I’ve changed my procedures when grading large assignments to reduce [...]

With the popularity of the internet and the ever-increasing access to it, students are using it for less than honest reasons. Although a great many students remain honest and complete their own work, a growing number have resorted to cheating by using papers off the internet and using others’ research. According to one study on [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Recently, I sat down with one of our counselors and discussed the numerous reasons for so many freshman failures and failures in general. Of course, the normal reasons sprang up: student apathy, teacher ineffectiveness, absences, disconnections from school, and more. The one that bothered me the most, surprising as it may seem, is a failure to ...