Bittersweet
Graded the first part of my 9th graders’ finals and I’m pretty pleased. With a few exceptions, most scores were in the B range, which is great for a bunch of classes in which the class averages are at 70 percent.
That said, there are a few students who I don’t think will pass and get their credits this semester. Some I expected, others I did not. The ones I didn’t expect are kind of bumming me out. I hope they rock their essays so I can justify passing them.
I’m a firm believer in grades that represent what a student knows and not how lazy he or she is (or isn’t). I don’t fail kids for being lazy. If they have an F and get a B on my final, they’re passing the course. The hard thing is when a kid has a C and fails the final. The C is from getting work in, but obviously not completely understanding the content. Those are the Fs I have a very hard time justifying and I feel like leaving it up to the math gods to decide by the percentage.
This is the hard part about being a teacher.
