So Caroline, Erina and I are at Ewing HS doing practicum. We got to class last Tuesday and the students were told that it was the last day they had to hand in their midterms for the class, otherwise they would receive a failing grade, signifigantly lowering their grade for the semester. Thursday Mr. Atkins warned us that he would have to discipline the students because only 30 out of 50 students handed in their midterm assignment, which is close to half of the class. I do not understand why this may have happened, and I was shocked when he told us because the class seems to love him and choir so much. I was just curious as to what anyone thought on why things may have played out this way in a setting where the students really seem to enjoy the class.
posted by Kaili @ 6:00 PM
4 Comments:
It sounds like the students like the class and teacher because its a fun environment and the teacher is fun. However, the teacher probably wants to stay on his students good side and has become sort of a "pushover" when it comes to holding the students accountable for their work. The teacher told the students they would recieve a failing grade if they didn't turn in their assignments, but did he actually fail them, or was it just another idle threat that the students are used to?
I agree with Sandy. I thought about your situation, and maybe only 30 kids handed them in because this kind of thing has happened before and he hasn’t failed anyone. It might be that although the students respect him and enjoy the class, know that they can push boundaries with out receiving consequences. If from the beginning he threatened to fail them, and then went through with the punishment I don’t think he would have any problems. The first time he didn’t do what he was planning, the students will take it as an opportunity to not hand in things at other times.
I get the feeling that the students are not motivated to do the work or maybe they do not know how. I do not know what the assignment was but I know that students take choir as a 'free period.' Even if theory was taught in the classroom it doesn't mean they would pay attention because they have no reason to obtain that information. Unless the connection between choir and theory is displayed the students are not going to want to do anything else but sing and get an easy A. Now when midterm season comes around, the students are ashamed because they had the oppurtunity to learn the informtaion to complete the midterm and now they can not complete it. Most students would rather be empty handed than tell a teacher that they never listened to the past lesson plans. Especially if the student/teacher relationship is more like buddy/buddy.
Since it seems like the teacher did everything he could to prevent this problem, it confuses me too why this would have happened. Perhaps if the teacher follows through with the grade that they earned, they will take him seriously in the future. Or, if the teacher calls half of the class to stay after so that he can talk to them all about how he might be disapointed in them and that he expected more from such wonderful students... I wish I knew the class because this situation is very interesting and it makes me think that perhaps it is becoming a common assumption that music is an easy subject and even the students that like music may not be willing to work for it.
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