Thursday, November 13, 2008

Failing grades are my fault?

I find it comical that right before grades get sent out to parents, students REALLY start to care about their grades. They want to see how bad their grades are, and then argue with me about how bad they are.

What I don't understand is...when students have failing grades because they haven't turned in multiple assignments, how is it MY fault? I had a student this afternoon blame ME for her 16% average, because I did not come to her individually to tell her when her assignments are due. Writing the due dates on the board and announcing them in class daily was obviously not good enough.

I just wonder how many other teachers are blamed for not telling their students individually when to turn in assignments..........

2 comments:

Simsbumponablog said...

I've been teaching for 31 years and last week experienced something for the very first time. One of my seniors accused me putting all of her mistakes "back in" her research paper before I graded it. Isn't it amazing how "mean" we are!?

Dana Huff said...

The answer to your question is all of them. All teachers are told at some point or other that low grades are their fault, and frankly, not always by students but also by administration and parents. Just make sure you communicate with everyone in a timely manner (but you probably knew that).