Half a year -
Yesterday was the final day of 1st semester. Monday is a teacher's work day to put grades in, but mine were in as of Thursday morning. On Thursday there were students in my 1st 5 classes who still had midterms to take, so I gave them the period to study (they were unlikely to learn anything I attempted to teach them), and for my last, in fairness I let them have the period to relax and chat. Yesterday was makeup day, so we could begin instruction again, but I was not going to start something new before they had a 3-day weekend (for which they have work).
If not for one student, this would have been a remarkable quarter. That one young man in my last period cut all week, so I have had to give him a zero on his midterm, which dropped is grade from 61 to 54. I have 170 students passing, he is the only failure. For while I thought for the first time in my career every student in my classes would be passing. Still, the percentage is remarkably high. And I have not lowered my standards. Joe (not his real name) is simply lazy and irresponsible, and there seems little either I or his parents can do about it.
