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tedious shoptalk ahead....
the beautiful was not to be found
in my thoughts this afternoon as i struggled to divine administrative
wishes and intentions surrounding the latest requirement that
a progress report be posted for every student by this coming
tuesday. up to now, these reports only needed to be filed for
students who were in some academic trouble.
true... we have been at it since
august 15 - a full month already - but i have only the tiniest,
most pitiful handful of grades to show for it.... and these fall
into the slim 20% of our quarter grade known as Class Work. the
bulk of the grade will come nearer the end of the quarter when
i tally all of the message board posts (40%) and dole out grades
for major projects (40%).
so... i'm unable to fulfill the
adminstrative desire (if that's what it is) that each student
be given an actual grade at this moment. and, of course, it's
my own damn fault. why can't i just be like all of the normal
teachers? they've got big bundles of normal grades by now. they've
got quizzes and tests and five or six essay scores by now. i've
got squat... they give points for stuff. i give weird little
checks and pluses and minuses (what the heck does a check minus
and a check minus and a check plus equal? well, actually, it
equals 2.5... 2.5 what? just 2.5. and whether or not 2.5 is a
good thing or a bad thing will depend on what we have by the
end of the quarter.)
what is the grade? it is the
student's paycheck. it is the parent's receipt. it is the teacher's
ruler. it is the administration's yardstick. it's the score at
the end of the game... (Carmel Mundelein 24 - Mt. Carmel Chicago
21... way to go corsairs! A+) it has less of a causal and more
of a mystical relationship to what we hopefully call learning.
by the grade we shall know them... forever and ever. amen.
i address my problem by resolving
to post not a grade but a description of my "grading system"
and criteria and comments for each student, describing the condition
of his/her work in a few key areas. this will have to do for
now.
and, yes, it is more work than
the whole business should require... but when have i ever done
anything the right way, the simple way? i do it the wrong way,
the complicated way, or no way at all.
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