The following is the first incident of its kind in 27 years of teaching:
I received an email via my workplace email service from a grade 12 student from last semester on August 8th. He let me know that the scholarship money he was hoping to receive from the university he is about to attend was diminished due to a lower mark average than what he needed. He asked me if he could do some extra work this week to improve his average.
Note that during the semester:
1. he often submitted assignments late.
2. he did the minimum of what was required.
3. he did not take much initiative to understand the assignments.
I let him know that I was not authorized to do this sort of thing and that he needed to talk to the school administrators.
This unusual request raises a question in my mind: have we so loosened the grip on deadlines that students feel they can work when they want and without any reference to faulty work habits?
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I am not sure what an appropriate response is. My thoughts are that this student in grade 12 is not ready for University. If he can't handle the deadlines of high school can he handle the deadlines in university. If he did go he might be wasting allot of money and time. It may be a hard lesson to learn but its better to learn it now then later.
ReplyDeleteAs students progress through each grade level, the complexity of what’s expected increases thus if the student is encountering difficulties with fulfilling expectations in high-school, it is likely that they too will continue on this path of difficulties in University. Given that University is more self-regulated and independent work, I would presume that the student would have challenges with the transition of meeting student expectations. In preparing students for University, I think that students need to be held accountable for their actions and learn what’s required of them. If we as teachers continue to omit students and not enforce repercussions then the pattern of the behavior will continue, as nothing would have been learned by the student. In doing so, we are not preparing our students for the real world but instead creating the possibility of failure.
DeleteExplanation to thought:
(e.g. the student ALWAYS hands in his assignments late the teacher is aware of this but lets it slide; he or she does not say anything to the student as a result, the student has learned nothing about being punctual, and the importance of completing tasks on time the student now enters university where students are held accountable for their actions. If you submit a late assignment, you get late marks deducted or 0; there is no leeway because the student has developed a habit of submitting assignments late, it is inevitable that he will encounter great difficulties trying to change this behavior. Change is a progression thus it will not happen instantly. Given this, the likelihood that he will encounter great difficulties is high. In my view, I believe that all of this could have been prevented had the teacher recognized the students patterned behavior (late submissions) and worked towards a goal in which helped the student to develop positive habits, of competing work on time.
As students progress through each grade level, the complexity of what’s expected increases thus if the student is encountering difficulties with fulfilling expectations in high-school, it is likely that they too will continue on this path of difficulties in University. Given that University is more self-regulated and independent work, I would presume that the student would have challenges with the transition of meeting student expectations. In preparing students for University, I think that students need to be held accountable for their actions and learn what’s required of them. If we as teachers continue to omit students and not enforce repercussions then the pattern of the behavior will continue, as nothing would have been learned by the student. In doing so, we are not preparing our students for the real world but instead creating the possibility of failure.
DeleteExplanation to thought:
(e.g. the student ALWAYS hands in his assignments late the teacher is aware of this but lets it slide; he or she does not say anything to the student as a result, the student has learned nothing about being punctual, and the importance of completing tasks on time the student now enters university where students are held accountable for their actions. If you submit a late assignment, you get late marks deducted or 0; there is no leeway because the student has developed a habit of submitting assignments late, it is inevitable that he will encounter great difficulties trying to change this behavior. Change is a progression thus it will not happen instantly. Given this, the likelihood that he will encounter great difficulties is high. In my view, I believe that all of this could have been prevented had the teacher recognized the students patterned behavior (late submissions) and worked towards a goal in which helped the student to develop positive habits, of competing work on time.
You mentioned that the student had some deficits in his performance during the year with his assignments which resulted in a decline of his grades. Putting myself in your place I would have arranged a meeting with him as soon as I noticed the consecutive inadequacy in his work to better understand the cause and to try to help him early in the year as oppose to facing the “too little too late” scenario.
ReplyDeleteAs a Christian I have to do my utmost in order to keep hope alive for my students. We all face different challenges or obstacles in our lives which may slow us down and where we might need a helping and an understanding figure to help us pass through it which may have happened to this particular student, not to say that he was not the real cause of his tardiness, this will only be revealed by continuous monitoring.
It is understandable that the student feels the financial pressure associated with attending a post-secondary institution. However, when receiving a "conditional offer of acceptance" there are certain conditions that need to be met such as minimal average required in order for the acceptance to longer be conditional. I assume the student had received a conditional offer seeing as the scholarship money was going to be diminished due to his average falling short of the requirement. It is the duty of the student to ensure that his best effort is put fourth on all assignments which includes: submitting the assignments on time, going beyond the minimum work required, and asking questions should there be some misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, in the "working world" there can be serious repercussions should we as adults miss deadlines. Furthermore, in some cases faulty work habits can cost a person their job.
What type of example would are we setting for future generations if we turn a blind eye to such work habits? Are we not then setting them up for more disappointment in the future? I believe that the purpose of education, including post-secondary education is to prepare oneself for a future career in their field of choice. If we are to "lax" for lack of a better word with respect to assignments and work habits then are we not suggesting to these students who enter the workforce that there is an "easier" way for doing things that requires less time and effort on their behalf?
Perhaps you are on to something here- could there be a possible flaw in the system as a result of a looser grip on deadlines which causes students to feel that they do not have to work as hard or develop good work habits?
This is a very tough stop to be in. I want to have sympathy for the student and allow him to complete additional tasks to raise his average. However, I believe you would have to ask yourself if this is an opportunity that you would give to all students so that they all have an equal chance to get the best mark possible. If you do allow him to do additional work, would it be possible to make him aware that depending on what mark he receives on the additional assignment that it could either increase or decrease his mark? Maybe this would be a way of still enforcing the importance of submitting assignments on time and working hard on them the first time.
ReplyDeleteMy first question is, although during the semester he may have handed in work late and didn't do his best, but is this a common occurrence with him in other classes and has he done this in past grades?
ReplyDeleteWhat I would have first done was find out why the assignments were all late. Maybe there are issue at home that are affecting his ability to complete his assignments on time.
I don't believe in spoon feeding the students, they should be held accountable for their actions and maybe he just got lazy the last semester of school knowing that he was already accepted to a university. But that shouldn't stop us from digging deep to make sure there are no serious issues that were missed.
As teachers I believe it is our responsibility to do our best to ensure that all of our students succeed and in this case if this student has a valid reason for his grades dropping then maybe a few extra credit assignments wouldn't hurt. If he has no excuse then he should have to live with the consequences.
I agree with the notion that there is a possible flaw in the system as a result of a looser grip on deadlines which causes students to feel that they do not have to perform to the best of their abilities or develop steady, consistent work habits. This student must have realized that when you receive a "conditional offer of acceptance", there are certain conditions that must be met. One of those conditions is a minimum average. In University, this same student would not be allowed to request any extension or extra assignment to better a mark. This also makes me wonder if the student is ready for the demands of University? In life, we cannot expect extensions from deadlines, whatever they may be.
ReplyDeleteI will be the first to argue that set deadlines for student coursework are both necessary and important. When students hit the working world, a deadline is a deadline and if you miss it or if you do poor work, you get fired!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also believe that school is a place of learning and part of that learning is not just information, but it's life skills. If a student who has "blown it" by underachieving approached me towards the end of the year, acknowledged that they had slacked off, and wanted to demonstrate their true capability in order to achieve a mark necessary for a university scholarship, then I would definitely give them that opportunity. I would give them a difficult but achievable assignment in order to prove themselves worthy of the grade they require. In my mind, the teachable moment is not the actual extra course work, rather, the teachable moment is helping the student understand why they are in this situation, why I as a teacher can refuse to help, and then allowing an opportunity for the student to choose to learn from the experience and redeem themselves.
This has been a huge "beef" of mine since I first heard that deadlines were going the way of the dodo. Part of our job as educators (no matter what age) is giving children tools to help them be successful in the "real world". We MUST teach them how to be responsible children (not only for their belongings like kindergartners, but for assignments as they get older). Deadlines should be brought back in every aspect of education unless there are circumstances that have been discussed between the teacher and the student and/or parents. Deadlines are a part of life whether it is paying bills on time, getting to work, etc. and children need to be taught there are consequences if deadlines aren't met.
ReplyDeleteStudent success is dependent on both the efforts of the teacher and student. As teachers I think that in this scenario, it would be our responsibility to look for patterns and consistency in student behavior. Does this student continuously submit assignments late or has it only happened a few times. We need to look deeper into the situation to determine the reason behind the students’ actions. Perhaps the student was dealing with issues at home or was going through a rough time, during that time. We don’t know unless we ask. Thus it is important that we be mindful of these things and look at the situation from an ecological perspective in order to better understand the situation. If the behavior (submitting late assignments) is consistent and you as a teacher have noticed a pattern, then I think that it’s the teacher’s responsibility to recognize the issue, bring awareness to the student and create an action plan. As teachers we need to recognize students’ weaknesses and areas of struggles in order to work towards improvement and student success. As educators we can work collaboratively with the student to establish goals and better working habits. I also believe that it is the teacher’s responsibility to motivate students to go beyond. They should all want to exceed the minimum expectations and excel. Thus I believe that it would be the teacher’s responsibility to create opportunities for that student to go beyond and challenge themselves.
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ReplyDeleteA teacher's role is to help students succeed and prepare them for the role of an adult in the future. High school students are responsible for their actions and need to feel the consequences of their decisions. Because I want to be an educator, I would feel I would be obligated to help this particular student out in some way. Considering that this student consistently put no extra effort into getting level 4s throughout the semester, I would not put my best effort into helping him succeed if it meant additional work that was not already easily accessible for me. If I knew that I was not making a continuous effort to help him succeed, I would feel extra obligated to help him. I feel that deadlines are important for students, especially those who are working towards higher education, for once you become responsible to and for others, deadlines matter and cannot be changed.
ReplyDeleteI believe that everybody needs to have a second chance. I know that in our society today we have to respect deadlines for paying the bills, or for being on time at work, etc. However, there are situations when we cannot respect the deadlines or the rules. If we are not able to pay our mortgage we go to the bank, we talk to our financial adviser and we negotiate for another deadline, by giving him reasonable reasons for our demand.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of your student, I think that this is the moment when he finally can understand the consequences of his deeds, and it could be a great opportunity, by giving him a second chance, to make him change his pattern. I strongly believe that as far as we do not abuse the system or take advantage of others, we all need a second chance, especially if we are open to work for the goals we want to reach. Moreover, I believe that our educational system should give students the opportunity to go back and to improve their average. I do not think that this means "loosen the grip on deadlines" or losing our power as teachers. Maybe we could think about the times when we were students, sometimes responsible, sometimes irresponsible, and when a teacher gave us a second chance, from which we got the energy, the interest, the motivation to change less or more our behavior and to become responsible. Another think to take in consideration is the reason why our students seem to be unmotivated, why they are doing the minimum. Maybe we should go behind the school curtain to see what is going on our students' life after school (family challenges, family patterns, life challenges, health challenges). In my case, I remember that my worst times in school, when I was always late, not only with my work, but also coming late to school, were when I was facing family challenges, and I am so grateful today to those teachers who took a look behind my respectful attitude, and who supported me throughout those difficult times.
In my opinion, we all deserving of a second chance. We don’t know the reasons why the student behaved poorly. Did something happen in his life where he lacked motivation? We don’t know his grades in previous years and how he is as a student overall. In this case, I do believe the instructor and administration should bend the rules. As life progresses, he will encounter many obstacles. So, why in his early education years hold him back from a full scholarship. He will learn the hard way that work ethic is important to advance professionally!
ReplyDeleteI am actually in shock that this student had the nerve to ask this. Of course students all deserve second chances but this is not a second chance; this is breaking the rules to make exceptions for a student because he did not get the results he was hoping for. Students know their responsibilities in the classroom and also know the expectations in order to receive the money. Given that the student chose not to try while he was in your class, my first reaction would be to not help him out or give him the idea of talking to a school administrator. If the student had tried hard all year long and was still in this situation, I would likely be more sympathetic towards him and would want to help.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little troubled by this in that, with a very 'lax' school system for deadlines, what are we really teaching our students about responsibility, accountability and self-regulation? If this student wants to go to university, the rules and regulations are so much more strict, how will they succeed there? As much as we want to give students ample time and opportunity to successfully complete assignments, they too, in turn, must communicate when they are having difficulty and put in the effort in their assignments. It does appear that we have loosened our expectations on deadlines, and must find a good balance that honours the students' abilities/limitations, however, keeps them accountable at the same time.
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