"Redo" Explained...basics

I guess I could finally explain our Redo Policy at the school.

Basically, all students have to achieve an 80 or above on ALL assignments except final exams and Benchmarks given by the state. If a student is in Advanced classes, like mine, they must get a 90 or above on their work.

For example, Johnny does a quiz and gets a grade of 56, then he will go to “Lunch Bunch” the next day. During Lunch Bunch, Johnny will re-attempt the quiz. At the end of the day, the paper is given back to the teacher to grade and hopefully Johnny made at least an 80. But he didn’t. So he goes again to Lunch Bunch the next day again. This time he makes a 94.

Now, if Johnny’s second day in Lunch Bunch wasn’t successful, he would have to go to Encore. Encore is basically academic ISS. The kid is pulled from all regular classes that day until he/she can finish the assignment with an 80+ grade.

The 94 is the grade that goes in the gradebook. But if Johnny were an overachiever, he could redo all his assignments and tests until he got 100s on everything.

In theory, it is a perfect idea. In practice, it takes months to figure out the kinks. This is our second year of Redo at the school and compared to last year, it is so much better. Last year’s Redo sucked. Kids never went to Lunch Bunch and the ladies who ran LB didn’t know who was supposed to show up and who wasn’t.

This year we started a List on Google Docs that the teachers update everyday or every hour if necessary. So all the teachers in the school know if any student is missing work.

We don’t let kids get away with “forgetting” their homework and receiving a zero: the easy way out. We don’t take off 10 points for no heading. We don’t give extra credit for bringing 10 cans for the food drive. We don’t have free 100s for taking Mom or Dad to Parent Nite.

The kids HAVE to earn their grades here.

Of course there are many kinks in the system still. When I need kids pulled for Encore, it usually doesn’t happen soon, and the students that are going through Redo for the second time around (they were 7^th graders last year, so all 8^th graders this year) are seeing that this is the way to really get under teachers and admins’ skins. Don’t work.

One of my Trio has even been kicked out of Lunch Bunch because he refuses to work.  

That’s it in a gist. It is super time consuming for us teachers, a lot of paperwork, and usually a headache trying to organize redos, but worth it for the kids. Their grades are better, they are forced to understand the material covered in classes, and the program won us a national award this past spring.

TGIF…..payday and a week holiday next week! Everyone have a GREAT Holiday!

-thaangryteacher

Anger Isn't Productive

Yesterday I had a rough day.

I was placed in the shoes of my students by some overbearing coworkers.

This is how the situation went down…

We have a thing called Re-Do at our school. I will have to do a whole separate post or two on that topic…well I’m innocently eating my lunch- homemade chili-and the Redo aid (she’s not even a teacher) storms into the lounge with her hands thrown up(seriously) and asks pretty rudely, “So are you going to send any work [for your students]??”

I guilty jump out of my chair and mutter an apologetic “Oh, yes!” and rush to my classroom to retrieve the work for my students.

I say a prayer ‘cause I am pretty pissed at this lady for being such a bitch to me…unfortunately, the prayer didn’t change my heart like it should have and I walked into the Library, shoot the woman a death glance, and hand the papers out to my kids. I did apologize to the other woman who runs the Redo, but when I walked out of the Library, Bitch walked past me and I completely ignored her.

I felt exactly, exactly like a small child who was chastised by mommy and was now sulking and giving mommy an attitude.

So wrong.

Second incident (same day, two hours later): The counselor calls me up asking for some scantrons that I sent down LAST THURSDAY because I wanted them in on time, actually a little bit early.

“Ms. Angryteacher, you are our holdout, you are the only one we haven’t received the scantrons from.”

I replied with the aforementioned statement but added, “I did send them down to your box with a trustworthy student.”

She paused, “Maybe the kid thought the other counselor’s box, let me go check.” Five minutes later lo and behold, that’s exactly what my “trustworthy” students had done.

Counselor’s parting words over the telephone, a frazzled and admonishing, “Don’t ever send a child down with completed scantrons!!” Click.

Again! I’m getting in trouble again!! Ahh, I felt like a naughty child being yelled at by their teacher! I almost cried (okay, maybe I’m PMS too..)

Later when I saw her, I was abrupt and had a bad attitude. It’s been awhile since I’ve been on the receiving side of a lecture; I’m usually the one giving lectures nowdays.

Lesson learned: Yeah, we are human, and we are going to be frustrated with other people, especially kids who are rude, stupid, stubborn, troublemakers, tardy, etc. but yelling or even worse, being condescending doesn’t help. Our natural reaction is to become defensive and pissed off.

And you never know when a kid just got in trouble in  another teacher’s class. What happens when you also get on to them about something, even if it’s very important? Most likely, the kid will be angrier than normal and resent you for days/weeks/ months to come.

What your mouths is all I’m trying to say.

-thaangryteacher