My favorite and least favorite day of the semester is when I
have my day long one-on-one meetings with my students. It's exhausting, I feel
like sometimes I say the same things over and over again and I often feel like
banging my head against a wall or a desk.
This year I can divide my students up into four groups.
First is the group of nearly-hopeless students. The semester isn't over yet so I can't write them off completely, but they show up with a terrible assignment, they do no reflection whatsoever, they think that their charm or their age will get them by and they give me no reason to pass them. I have a few students show up today with nothing whatsoever. "We had an assignment?" "Yes, what do you think we were discussing the first 15 minutes of class?" "I didn't know I had to bring that." "What did you think this meeting was about?" "I dunno." Is there an emoticon for shooting yourself in the head? Because there really should be. Ugh, these kids are exhausting.
Group two is all over the board. They get As and they also have a few Ds thrown in there. I had four kids in a row today show up with an A, a B, a C and a D. Who does that!? We spend a lot of time talking about balance, how to improve the low grades without letting the high grades slip. I still wonder how they got those grades.
The third group I like to call the talkers. They know what to say, they have all the right answers, they know what they need to do. THEY JUST NEED TO DO IT. I think most of them get that now. The best thing about midterms is that they do get a wake-up call. Thank heavens.
Last, but certainly not least, the kids who show up with straight As. Yes, I have some of those. Or they have a few As and a few high Bs. I love these kids. They make me so happy.
These next few weeks will be very interesting. There won't be many quizzes, just presentations, debates, projects and papers. If they screw up on these big ticket items, it could mess them up for the semester so it'll be very telling to see how they perform. Thank goodness the semester is more than half way over!
This year I can divide my students up into four groups.
First is the group of nearly-hopeless students. The semester isn't over yet so I can't write them off completely, but they show up with a terrible assignment, they do no reflection whatsoever, they think that their charm or their age will get them by and they give me no reason to pass them. I have a few students show up today with nothing whatsoever. "We had an assignment?" "Yes, what do you think we were discussing the first 15 minutes of class?" "I didn't know I had to bring that." "What did you think this meeting was about?" "I dunno." Is there an emoticon for shooting yourself in the head? Because there really should be. Ugh, these kids are exhausting.
Group two is all over the board. They get As and they also have a few Ds thrown in there. I had four kids in a row today show up with an A, a B, a C and a D. Who does that!? We spend a lot of time talking about balance, how to improve the low grades without letting the high grades slip. I still wonder how they got those grades.
The third group I like to call the talkers. They know what to say, they have all the right answers, they know what they need to do. THEY JUST NEED TO DO IT. I think most of them get that now. The best thing about midterms is that they do get a wake-up call. Thank heavens.
Last, but certainly not least, the kids who show up with straight As. Yes, I have some of those. Or they have a few As and a few high Bs. I love these kids. They make me so happy.
These next few weeks will be very interesting. There won't be many quizzes, just presentations, debates, projects and papers. If they screw up on these big ticket items, it could mess them up for the semester so it'll be very telling to see how they perform. Thank goodness the semester is more than half way over!
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