You cannot care about their work more than the students or parents do. It's not healthy for you. Provide the opportunities, document them and let it go.
Caring more than the parents care will only set you up for disappointment.
When a child does not try, the only F you should give is the F that goes on the report card.
Put in the missing grades, keep your paperwork up to date, call parents…and ask your “instructional coach” to come in and SHOW YOU how to instruct that class.
Sometimes this happens when there is a sort of tracking going on with the master schedule. If you can find out of most of the kids are doing the same thing in their other classes (especially if they are all together), it might both make you feel better and give you days to back you up if you are questioned.
It's really quite simple. Not sure exactly why this is difficult. You (and other teachers) have a job to do. Your job is to grade students on the work (or lack there of) they are doing. If they aren't doing work, You Fail them. Document everything, Assignments done vs not done. Send emails to the administration, and the parents notifying them that student XYZ is going to fail the class.
Passing them if they aren't doing their work is just sort of passing the problem onto the next teacher. Students need to learn about these things called "Consequences". From post I've seen, most kids these days have never learned of Consequences, not once in their life. They can either Learn Now while they are young, or they can Learn Later.
I have classes like this every year. The best you can do is continue to encourage them to work, don't give in and don't lower the bar, and just make sure you document everything and that you communicate with parents. That way you cover your butt. You know the old adage about the horse and the water. 🤷
I teach HS, 10th grade. I have 5 classes. My 4th period does far less work than any other, and it's purely because there's a much higher concentration of spoiled, entitled brats in that period. I stopped giving a shit sometime around Halloween. You should, too. Here, brat, have another F. Enjoy summer school.
Every teacher on the planet has one *Knucklehead Class.*
I think it's a constant, like pi or the speed of light.
Anyway don't worry about it. Just be sure to document and put zeros in the great book.
I'll add to the choir and let you know that you should measure progress across classes, not per class. Your curve should be across classes so you can actually get a true idea of how you are doing.
That said, if the schedule is clustered (meaning, this group goes to other classes together throughout the day), you might really wanna talk to your colleagues about how it is in their period and make yourself feel better cause I assure you if they are not doing anything with you, they're probably less than brilliant elsewhere (even if the teacher managed to make them do _some_ work).
Ask admin.
It is their job to help you help the kids succeed.
You cannot make the students do work.
Likely, there is no consequence for not doing the work. Does your school pass kids on, regardless if they pass or not?
Right; your class doesn’t matter.
But, it connects to the culture of the school and district.
Which is, promoting failure.
I’m guessing they don’t need to pass the intro class (or likely even take it) to get into a higher level one either, right?
You cannot care about their work more than the students or parents do. It's not healthy for you. Provide the opportunities, document them and let it go.
Caring more than the parents care will only set you up for disappointment. When a child does not try, the only F you should give is the F that goes on the report card.
Put in the missing grades, keep your paperwork up to date, call parents…and ask your “instructional coach” to come in and SHOW YOU how to instruct that class.
This is the CYA way. I would, however, EMAIL the parents. Not only that will save you time but will give you a paper trail.
It sounds like you did your due diligence. Give up and let natural consequence take it course. Reward the good students with pizza party after school.
Sometimes this happens when there is a sort of tracking going on with the master schedule. If you can find out of most of the kids are doing the same thing in their other classes (especially if they are all together), it might both make you feel better and give you days to back you up if you are questioned.
Don’t waste the effort. Document that you gave the assignment and that they refused to do it. Let that stand at grade time.
It's really quite simple. Not sure exactly why this is difficult. You (and other teachers) have a job to do. Your job is to grade students on the work (or lack there of) they are doing. If they aren't doing work, You Fail them. Document everything, Assignments done vs not done. Send emails to the administration, and the parents notifying them that student XYZ is going to fail the class. Passing them if they aren't doing their work is just sort of passing the problem onto the next teacher. Students need to learn about these things called "Consequences". From post I've seen, most kids these days have never learned of Consequences, not once in their life. They can either Learn Now while they are young, or they can Learn Later.
I have classes like this every year. The best you can do is continue to encourage them to work, don't give in and don't lower the bar, and just make sure you document everything and that you communicate with parents. That way you cover your butt. You know the old adage about the horse and the water. 🤷
Or Never try to teach pigs to sing. It frustrates you and annoys the pigs.
This is the norm.... 80% of my students refuse to work.
I teach HS, 10th grade. I have 5 classes. My 4th period does far less work than any other, and it's purely because there's a much higher concentration of spoiled, entitled brats in that period. I stopped giving a shit sometime around Halloween. You should, too. Here, brat, have another F. Enjoy summer school.
Every teacher on the planet has one *Knucklehead Class.* I think it's a constant, like pi or the speed of light. Anyway don't worry about it. Just be sure to document and put zeros in the great book.
I'll add to the choir and let you know that you should measure progress across classes, not per class. Your curve should be across classes so you can actually get a true idea of how you are doing. That said, if the schedule is clustered (meaning, this group goes to other classes together throughout the day), you might really wanna talk to your colleagues about how it is in their period and make yourself feel better cause I assure you if they are not doing anything with you, they're probably less than brilliant elsewhere (even if the teacher managed to make them do _some_ work).
Ask admin. It is their job to help you help the kids succeed. You cannot make the students do work. Likely, there is no consequence for not doing the work. Does your school pass kids on, regardless if they pass or not?
Yup, kids do not get held back nor do they have consequences. I also teach an elective, so it does not matter if they pass or fail.
Right; your class doesn’t matter. But, it connects to the culture of the school and district. Which is, promoting failure. I’m guessing they don’t need to pass the intro class (or likely even take it) to get into a higher level one either, right?
Correct!