Tuesday's are good days for a teacher (or at least for this one). Students are over the "ugh, it's monday," but not quite to the "is it friday yet?" That starts around Wednesday afternoon.
Everything varies depending on the time of year. It was suggested that I call home instead of handing out detentions, which is a great idea if it were any other time of the year. This close to the end (six weeks and counting) I've found it to be ineffective and simply frustrating for me. So I don't call. I send letters and emails, but no calls. I don't like to let my daily difficulties spill over too much into my family time in the evenings.
Current dilemma: Students failing Algebra 1 in droves. We're talking 43 out of 50 students failing. The quizzes have motivated them in class, but the grades are still low. There's a BIG test on Friday. I'm considering several things:
1. Allow students to work in their newly assigned groups for 15 minutes on Monday to review their tests before I grade them. (Also gets me off the hook for grading over the weekend LOL)
2. Adopting a collegues policy of not awarding anything lower than a 50% on any attempted quiz/test. Mathematically (I'll spare the details), it seems that a low grade can hurt much more than a high grade can help. I 25% on a test really is almost impossible to recover from. If a 90-100 is an A, then a 50-60 should be an F. Nothing lower unless the child makes no attempt at all, then it's still a zero.
3. Fill in any missing quiz scores with the same percent that the student recieves on the test. This conflicts with the 50% rule above, and I really don't like the fact that one person may try and get a 20% and another makes no attempt and gets a 55% by default (if that's what they score on their test.) This is often how stuff works out in real life though... Tough decision, but I'll think I'll ditch this one.
Second dilemma: My basic math students will effectively finish the curriculum about 4 weeks before the year ends. I've never flown without a net before, so it will be an interesting challenge to make up my own material. I'm thinking we spend time on tangible area and volume and trig ratios and things like that. We'll go outside and measure the height of the flag pole. I must have faith that they will behave outside and do what they are asked to. Engage them, I think is the current buzzphrase.