Category Archives: lack

Some  students do not have the work habits that make it easy for them to be successful in school.  In class, I talk  a lot about the characteristics of successful people and the role that perseverance plays in their success. Unfortunately,  perseverance is not the only thing some of my  students lack.  They lack another important characteristic that successful people share.  They lack the  emotional support  they need to help them be successful.   Some students don’t have anyone there for them when the going get tough or even to help them celebrate life’s successes great or small.  That’s where I come in.  I try to give them the emotional support they need to help them find their way to success at school.

Sometimes students will work on projects and assignments but for any number of reasons don’t submit the assignments for evaluation. They  seem to run out of energy, interest or whatever  and just give up. I’m always encouraging them to submit things  so I can give them the marks they’ve earned. I’m constantly telling  them if they don’t hand things in it makes it very difficult for me to find marks to give them.  I don’t find it useful to tell them that if they don’t hand work in they’ll fail.  They’re used to hearing that.  They’re used to failing. I take a different approach. I tell them they have to help me find the marks they need to pass them.  Yes, of course it would be nice if my  students just wanted to learn for the sake of learning, but that’s not the way it is for some students.  I have to start where from where my students are.

I used to get very frustrated when I would see my students working on assignments  in class and then not submit  them for evaluation.  In fact, it used to drive me crazy.  I’ve  learned to observe and record their  progress during the time they work in class  so that if for some reason they don’t  submit an assignment,   I still have some sense of their progress and can evaluate what I have seen. Believe me,  there are many reasons why assignments don’t get handed in. Not completing them  is only one reason.

It’s important to know that some of my more reluctant/struggling students are not interested in getting high marks.  They feel they’ve  aced the course when they get  51%.  I know because they’ve told me this.  Of course I encourage my students  to do more than the bare minimum and will often tell them they’ve made a good start.  Then, I encourage them to improve  their work  by suggesting  if they just changed this a bit here or expanded on that a bit there I could find more marks to give them.  Believe me.  It works.

I’ll admit this whole idea of finding marks to give students for assignments they have or have not submitted can seem a bit strange.  But, and this is a big but, I teach students who are at-risk academically, and I need to think creatively to find ways to motivate them and give them the support they need  so they can find their way to success.  That’s what makes teaching so rewarding.

Continue reading →