So I might have gotten carried away with my last post. I still more or less concur with everything I wrote. However, I think while I was writing, I somehow thought that I was already done my internship. Today proved that is NOT the case.
I’ve had this running issue with students. There is a significant problem with them handing assignments in at the school. Moreover, the school has a “school-wide” policy regarding late assignments stating that kids lose 20% for being late 1 day, another 10% for the second day, and a final 10% on the third. So if a student hands in an assignment 3 days late, they’re instantly losing 40%. Which will almost instantly fail any assignment that isn’t near perfection. After 3 days, students get a 0.
I have one student who is purposely skipping class so she doesn’t have to perform a final project for the improv unit we’ve been doing. This is quite literally the equivalent of skipping class so one doesn’t have to write a final unit exam. I can understand the notion of stage fright, because some of us are not as keen on public speaking as others. This particular student has already had me call her parents and talk to student services in an attempt to avoid the task of public speaking. To me, it seems like the all the effort she’s expending towards avoidance is far greater than the 90 seconds of effort that would be required to finish the assignment. If her energy could somehow be re-directed towards breaking through her fears, what progress she’d make! It’s beyond frustrating when a student straight up asks me: “Can you just give me a zero?”
She’s not the only one I’ve seen skip class because of something that isn’t finished. The worst part of it is the amount of class time that I give to students to complete these assignments. It is extremely rare that I assign anything without giving the kids at least some class time, if not close to the entire week to work on it. So when I have half the work not come in on the due date, I’m literally at a loss for what I can do. My co-op says I shouldn’t take it personally, and I don’t. However, I really don’t feel like I’m doing my job when I have students just pissing away the time I’m giving them, and on top of that, not getting the assignments in on time.
Apparently, this is all part of the territory. This is something that I have to learn to deal with, either by confronting it or rolling with it.
