PLN 24

While scanning the contents of available blogs, mine eyes glimpsed an entry, regarded in my opinion, as simply disheartening. It was titled “Why are kids failing?” and was contained within Michele’s CIT blog. The composition primarily demonstrates a teacher’s frustrated state when coping with the immense failure looming in class. Her chief concern expressed in this article is one of confusion as to why a vast majority of her students are currently failing her English course. She, out of desperation lowers the standards in her facility in hope of greater student achievement, but of course, these actions are to no avail. Michele states: “In my 9th grade classes, I have 3 categories: homework/responsibility where students can turn in late work for 50% of its worth; reading applications and analysis where students can do any assignment for 100% of its worth as well as the writing category where again students can do (and re-do) any assignment for 100%. This allows for penalties with day-to-day work, but allows for growth in the 2 categories key to English class.” She also bothers to note that: “Out of my 49 9th graders, 21 students have low D's and F's. I have 10 F's in my 4th hour alone!”. The most deceiving part of her job is also confronted when she explains how her students stand loyal to her (exclaiming that they love her), yet do not perform accordingly.

To me, this is truly discouraging, a teacher who does everything in her power to actually improve her struggling student’s grades should be considered heroic, thoughtful, and should be rewarded for her actions. Although this is all true in my personal opinion, the favor is not returned by her pupils. How come? I believe the answer is dependent on a student’s maturity level. Of course, Michele’s class consists of 9th graders (who are fresh out of middle school) and may (because of this) not have yet fully developed a sense of maturity to cope with the more challenging and less unaccustomed to assignments. During their middle school careers, students did not encounter excelled levels of thought. For most, the transition to high school from the more familiar middle school is a visibly radical feat. Because of the pressures associated with comprehensive tests, challenging homework, and in depth discussions, “Fresh”men might become seriously weighed down with these prospects. This leads to basically abandoning of these new challenges and a byproduct of poor achievement.

The problem surrounding Michele dictates her forgiveness. Essentially, she instructs the class in a manor proclaiming her elasticity. In her nature, she is a nice person, yet too nice; she simply bends around the fact that her students take advantage of her generous policies. When the matters of academic training are discussed, Michele should be prepared to not accept late work for any credit whatsoever. It is this trait expressed in her teaching methods which renders her capable of becoming a “babysitter” of students and not a genuine teacher. Because her students (the vast majority of them immature) understand her guidelines (accepting late work for 100%???!!!), they procrastinate until the assignment is “due” and ask for forgiveness keeping in mind that they will simply receive another chance with no reduction of points. Well, reality is not that lenient; in the real world, opportunities are encountered fairly rarely; to fail in an important task could potentially render one unemployed or worse. Students need to become more mature, face the facts, and understand the reality of life; if they simply procrastinate in their work, they can’t possible succeed in life. Likewise, teachers depicted as Michele must agree to become stricter, for if they do not accord with this warning, unforgiving students will not bask in the warmth of a prosperous life.