Monday, April 14, 2008

Reinforcement

Third quarter report card day is here! This means another day of no classes. Instead, teachers get to meet the parents of all the A and B students. The parents of all the F students--and the students that rarely show up--well, these parents won't show up.

Maybe I'll put together another fun little "you know you work for CPS" post (homecoming and PD day editions so far) later. In the meantime, please read my post from yesterday ...

AFTER-SCHOOL UPDATE
Ah, I don't feel like trying to be funny. A group of teachers is heading off for a much-needed beer, so I think I'll join them. A quick comment and I'm off: One thing that's always hilarious about this day is the reaction I get from my colleagues and students. Report card pick-up day is the only time I ever wear a suit (well, graduation day, too). Students laugh, wondering who I'm trying to impress. ("Your mom," I tell them.) Fellow teachers offer this backhanded compliment: "Well, you look really nice today." But I guess they're right.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

so what do you do with the report cards of the students whose p's don't pick them up? Mail them, toss them?

teacherman said...

Report cards that aren't picked up are left in the main office so that parents can pick them up at a more convenient time. Of course that means that many report cards are never picked up. At least that's the policy for the quarterly grades. The report cards that really matter (because they impact the GPA and class rank), the semester grades, are distributed to the students. However, the students cannot receive those report cards if they have any debts, such as overdue library fines or missing textbooks. Which results in many students NEVER actually seeing their grades. Sometimes I'll ask a kid what his GPA is, and he'll just shrug. Hasn't seen it, ever.

Is this the policy at all CPS schools? I don't know.

Unknown said...

When someone asks why I'm wearing a dress to work (I'm the casual sort), I always say, "Job Interview." :-)

teacher in WA state...

Anonymous said...

I teach at an alternative high school in Chicago. I talked to two parents yesterday whose kids were receiving an A and B in my class. I left work yesterday surprised at the low turn out but thought this is probably why these kids are in an alternative school in the first place.

teacherman said...

ferrier: Me too! At least that's what I used to say when students asked me why I was wearing a tie. Then I stopped wearing ties.