catnapper
05-17-2004, 06:55 AM
I HATE my kid's school district! You know all about the darn poem. Now its the darn history teacher for my daughter. Well, she had a projct on the KKK that I worked very hard with her. She needed an A to pass the class - the teacher pretty much failed her and half the class. The teacher sent home a failure notice saying that she "needs to study more" I don't think so... she studies a lot. She just doesn't get what this teacher is saying, and both her brother and sister back her up saying that this teacher is a witch.
So she had this KKK project due and got a B on it. Ok, B doesn't sound too bad, but YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS PROJECT! It was great! I called the teacher to ask why only a B, because this was an A project if ever I saw one. So maybe giving her the benefit of the doubt, I called to see if Heather missed some vital information. (Please keep in mind that she's the first teacher I've ever had to call for Heather, and the second teacher this year... the first was Tony's english teacher waaaay back in October, so I don't go flying off the handle demanding to know why grades were lower than I thought they should be) She didn't like how Heather gave the presentation... she said Heather just looked at the board and read the information off of it. Ok, but Heather says she had to do that because they weren't allowed to have notecards. She said, "but if they knew their information they wouldn't need note cards." I said, "But they are 8th grade kids! Even professional speakers use note cards!" She said, "well, if they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't need them." Didn't you just say that? ugh!
Then she told me that a B isn't bad at all. I KNOW a B is a respectable grade, but not when I saw the work that she put into it, and the extent she knew then information. She said that the "kids all knew ahead of time what she was looking for and if they failed to meet her criteria, there went twenty points." So I said, "Even if they exceeded your expectations in all areas but the one, you'll dock the full 20 points?" She said "Thats right, I'm looking for one thing and one thing only and the whole project is comprised of those things."
ummm... ok, no brownie points for extra good job on the majority of the project? Every teacher I've met has given kids more points because they obviously put major time into a project, so if they missed a bit here then the teacher would give them a break since the project as a whole was great. I said, but look. She's in 8th grade. This is not english or speech class. They are uncomfortable in front of their peers, so of course they're going to stare at the presentation board instead of the class." She said, "but they shouldn't have. Heather lost the twenty points there."
So, she had a solid A+ until presentation? Yep. I was fuming by this point, so I told her that she needed to give the kids a break because they were still kids. She told be that it was a departmental project and she only was following the rubric set up by the department. Yes, then why was the other history teacher telling me that she was going a little too far grading these projects? So I told her that... and she said, "well if you don't like it, then write to the school about the policy." I said, "no, I'll do better and give you some advice, GET A LIFE." and hung up.
Ok, so now I feel like a moron for doing that and she may take it out on Heather, but I don't care. grrrrr.
Sorry this is so long.... thanks for reading to the end if you did. :(
So she had this KKK project due and got a B on it. Ok, B doesn't sound too bad, but YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS PROJECT! It was great! I called the teacher to ask why only a B, because this was an A project if ever I saw one. So maybe giving her the benefit of the doubt, I called to see if Heather missed some vital information. (Please keep in mind that she's the first teacher I've ever had to call for Heather, and the second teacher this year... the first was Tony's english teacher waaaay back in October, so I don't go flying off the handle demanding to know why grades were lower than I thought they should be) She didn't like how Heather gave the presentation... she said Heather just looked at the board and read the information off of it. Ok, but Heather says she had to do that because they weren't allowed to have notecards. She said, "but if they knew their information they wouldn't need note cards." I said, "But they are 8th grade kids! Even professional speakers use note cards!" She said, "well, if they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't need them." Didn't you just say that? ugh!
Then she told me that a B isn't bad at all. I KNOW a B is a respectable grade, but not when I saw the work that she put into it, and the extent she knew then information. She said that the "kids all knew ahead of time what she was looking for and if they failed to meet her criteria, there went twenty points." So I said, "Even if they exceeded your expectations in all areas but the one, you'll dock the full 20 points?" She said "Thats right, I'm looking for one thing and one thing only and the whole project is comprised of those things."
ummm... ok, no brownie points for extra good job on the majority of the project? Every teacher I've met has given kids more points because they obviously put major time into a project, so if they missed a bit here then the teacher would give them a break since the project as a whole was great. I said, but look. She's in 8th grade. This is not english or speech class. They are uncomfortable in front of their peers, so of course they're going to stare at the presentation board instead of the class." She said, "but they shouldn't have. Heather lost the twenty points there."
So, she had a solid A+ until presentation? Yep. I was fuming by this point, so I told her that she needed to give the kids a break because they were still kids. She told be that it was a departmental project and she only was following the rubric set up by the department. Yes, then why was the other history teacher telling me that she was going a little too far grading these projects? So I told her that... and she said, "well if you don't like it, then write to the school about the policy." I said, "no, I'll do better and give you some advice, GET A LIFE." and hung up.
Ok, so now I feel like a moron for doing that and she may take it out on Heather, but I don't care. grrrrr.
Sorry this is so long.... thanks for reading to the end if you did. :(