When you have to give him a B

iStockphoto.com

My students did incredible on the common College Algebra final that all CA students on our campus have to take.  The median for my classes was a high B.  I think that's pretty darn good considering their instructor didn't even know what was going to be on the test.

Here's what kills me.  Even though I had some students do exceptionally well on the final, and--in fact--rather well on tests all semester, I gave out fewer A's than I would have liked.  For example, I had a student whose lowest unit test grade (out of 5) was a 94.  And the kid got a B in the class.

WHY, BOY, WHY??

Because, to do well in my class you have to do more than do well on the tests.  We have homework grades and we have study guide grades (and next semester, we gonna have attendance grades, too, let me tell ya).


Because I'm such a young teacher I have adjusted my grading scale every semester, hoping that one day I'll reach something I like, while still abiding by whatever rules the college has already set up.  For example, when I was a TA, I had to enforce a pretty strict attendance policy.  I had to email every student that missed a class, tell him what he missed, and give him his current attendance count.  Once a student missed more than four classes, I was to drop him.  This was really a lot of work.

So, when I finished grad school, and could structure my courses to my own liking, I went to the other extreme:  no attendance policy.  I thought, "Why make kids come to class if they already know this stuff?"  This really applied to my students, too, as they are concurrent high school seniors who have recently seen every thing College Algebra covers.

And then it hit me.

We are a class.  As in a group.  A team.  We learn from each other, and when someone doesn't show, the group is robbed from the opportunity of learning from that student.  I am robbed from the opportunity of discovering something new about mathematics or about the learning and teaching of mathematics.

Furthermore, I don't want to send the message of, "I don't care if you come to class or not."  Because I do care!  Immensely.


Hence, next semester there will be an attendance policy.  Because I want to teach my students more than mathematics.  I want to teach them life lessons, such as we learn from each other.

And that's why I take other grades into account, too.  Like homework.  I get that not every student needs to do it (but, let's face it--for math, most college students do).  But I want to show them that sometimes in life you have to do things you don't want to do.  And the same rules apply to everyone--whether you're a math superstar or not.


So, that's how someone with a near-perfect test average got a B.  Because he didn't grasp the fact he needed to follow instructions along with everyone else, because the instructions were set up for the benefit of us a group, as a community.

It hurt me a little to submit that B for one of the brightest students I've ever had.


I'm still learning.  Hopefully I always will be...