Weekly Journal

     The day and night difference between my two morning classes continues. The first class makes me feel like the whole week has been frustrating. The second class makes me feel that I might actually belong in a classroom.

            The students had a quiz over the first half of our grammar unit on the parts of the sentence on Monday. I started grading them right away after the classes, and was just shocked. The average for Period B was a D+/C-. Period D was a little better at a C. Honestly, there were a lot of careless mistakes. In the diagramming, some of the students had the right content, but did not diagram correctly (crooked lines, or modifier lines going in the wrong direction). I think what was very clear was that the majority of the students did NOT study, nor did they take notes in class. They didn't even use the study guide I gave them at the start of the unit. A study guide, I must point out, that essentially GAVE them many of the answers. I can't even tell you how many students could not tell me the four types of sentences and that was on my study sheet! Front and center!

            I had at least two students tell me "But I did [x,y,z]…," and I had to tell them, "but is that what the instructions told you?" Not to mention, what they did do didn't answer the questions I was asking. I might have been lenient had they just come to a correct answer via an alternate method, but that wasn't what they were doing.

            Tuesday I had to lay the hammer down about taking notes in class and cutting down on careless mistakes. I pointed out the study guide again as well, and told them there was really no excuse to have missed things like the four types of sentences considering it was on there directly. When I asked if anyone studied, most said they hadn't. Today (Wednesday) I gave back the quizzes and I think the lights finally went on about how important it is to ask questions and take notes in class, especially for the B group. The D group, immediately after my Tuesday talk, really stepped up and started asking lots of good questions about the content. [Whereas I still feel B wasn't taking me seriously and/or giving me the "screw you" kind of attitude on Tuesday.]

            Like I said: NIGHT and DAY difference.