The Super Bowl is today. On Friday there was talk of it throughout the entire school. Students asked me who I was pulling for (the Patriots, of course, since I'm hoping to see perfection. I also hope to have those old geezers of the 1972 Dolphins to finally shut up about being the greatest team ever. Never mind they played an incredibly easy schedule. And the Vikings had them beaten except for a stupid personal foul call that gave the Dolphins a first down and ended up allowing them to win). I just read on yahoo that this is by far the biggest day for Dominoes and Pizza Hut. Vegas is a nightmare I imagine.
All of this for one football game. Where do we ever see hysteria like this in the sporting world? The World Series? Please. Hockey? It is not even on a major network. Basketball? Interesting, but not nearly as big as the NFL.
At least this year we'll be able to watch the game. Last year I was working at school and made it home in time for the Colts' opening possession, of which I saw about five seconds before our cable went out. Now we have DirecTV and don't have to worry about that.
I think my highlight will be the new GI Joe trailer.
******
I'm 143 pages deep into The Dante Club. It reminds me of reading The Silence of the Lambs some 15 or 16 years ago. It is a combination of pure zeal as the story unfolds, but it is also a sense of frustration that inevitably the book must come to an end.
******
I gave one incomplete last semester. That student has one week left to make it up. But they won't. Of course, it was the student that I had to toss out of my class but was given every conceivable chance to make it up by both me and the administration. I would have had the student booted from the class. But that would have been too prudent. Instead they worked down in the counseling office (or so I assume, but I have my doubts they missed quite a bit of the time). Then they were put on an attendance contract (which I'm pretty sure was violated but nothing came of that). I also got zero work in from the student. How about putting them on a work contract? That would make more sense.
I truly want to see the kid pass. So I kept in touch with them and reminded them of their missing work. Nothing came in. Instead of failing them, I gave them an incomplete. But considering that no work has come in from this student for about a month now, I'm not optimistic.
Wouldn't it have been easier just to take my advice 13 weeks ago and drop the kids from the class? For once I can unabashedly say this: I was right.
I likely will have the student at the ALC this summer. I honestly was considering passing them (they were at around a 58% - 60% passes) just so I didn't have to deal with them at the ALC. But I just couldn't do it. Unlike here, the ALC has an attendance policy with some bite, so I might not have to deal with the student this summer at all.
The kid is nice enough. Troubled home life, in and out of trouble, bright but doesn't work hard enough, left on his own. . . you know the recipe.
I don't like to fail a kid, but when they don't deserve to pass - and then never make an effort even after you've given them the 1654th chance to pass, what can you do?
******
On the positive side of things, I have great new classes. Well, two out of three. My Comp 9 class is great. My College Comp classes are always great. My junior English class is hell on wheels (what do you expect with 33 kids), but I'll manage them. On Friday I took them down to our library's lab to work on Salem witchhunt trials savenger hunt. They really worked hard. So they have potential. Talk to me at the end of the week (we are starting The Crucuble) and I might have changed my tune.
No comments:
Post a Comment