Asking me to find a way to improve your grade after you have ignored the usual route of earning a grade is not going to work. If your grade matters, consider coming to class and doing the assignments.
Can you tell that I'm a little frustrated with my class?
5 comments:
You couldn't have said it better!
It wasn't until I was a teacher did I realize how many students seem to be unable to grasp this very basic concept. I used to tell my students that the single most important thing they could do in their college careers was attend every class. Of course, you'd think "completing the assignments" would be right up there, but what students didn't get was that the assignments were going to be *so much EASIER* if they'd attended class, kept up with the discussions, understood the assignment, started it on time, and gotten ongoing feedback--all of which happened IN CLASS.
I love the whole story that one can conjure up from this short post -- the whole set-up and situation and look in your student's eye.
I have a lot of running start students (high school students taking tuition-free classes at college). They seem to think that one can ignore class for the first month and an half and then, in a flurry of earnest repentance, still earn an A in the last half of class. They could, if they turned in A work from here on, end up with a C, but the opportunity for an A for the quarter has passed. This is a very new and difficult concept for them.
What really gets my goat is that they will go into great detail about how they have to have an A to stay on honor roll or to maintain scholarship eligibility or some other compelling reason why they have to have a good GPA. They seem to think that I am in the position to decide if they will get an A or not. I seem to think that they were in a position to get an A and they made other choices. I don't give grades. I record grades that are earned.
Anyway, I have the same conversation with multiple high-school students every quarter. I comfort myself with the idea that at least they get to learn about college expectations while the price-tag is still cheap (for them). They pay only for books and the state pays for the classes.
It is maddening though, that the not-ready-for-college kids get to come for free whilst I have so many hard-working goal-oriented adults who hold down full-time jobs and parent small children and pay for classes out of pocket.
It seems as if we are waving the carrot in front of the wrong noses.
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Hear, hear! I am another who is opposed to extra credit. (Of course there are exceptions, but in principle-NO.)
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