Major Test, Make-up Work and Impending Progress Reports/Contact

The students took their first major test today over Chapter 2 - Natural Texas. For the most part, the grades were good and I was pleased. There were a few students, however, who did not do well and failed the exam. The test is a Summative grade and the Summative average counts as 55% of a students entire grade. A failing grade on a major test can be devastating. Because of that fact, students who received a failing grade need to do their test corrections ASAP in order to get their grade up to passing. Students who failed with a grade below 50 will be sent to The Learning Center here in school tomorrow during my class time in order to begin working on these test corrections. Please encourage your student to complete these test corrections as soon as possible. The sooner the tests are corrected, the sooner that bad grade can change.

I have been inundated with late/make-up work over the last few days. It is good that the students are taking action and making an effort to get caught up. I will need all of you to be patient as I wade through it all and get it graded and recorded. I spent today grading tests so I will be able to start the process of grading the make-up work tomorrow. If the grade book shows a failing grade for your child under a particular assignment but they swear to you they have made it up and turned it in, that may very well be true. Give me a day or two to get caught up and everything should show up in the grade book as it should be. I reminded the kids today that it was unfair of them to have not turned in an assignment they had several days to work on, then take 5-6 more days to finally turn it in late and then be upset that I don't have it graded overnight. Everything will be up to date by the end of the week.

Finally, I will be sending out some emails and making some phone calls over the next few days to the parents/guardians of student who are failing the course, have 0's for assignments, etc. I have tried to give the students ample to time to readjust to the school schedule and get their act together but some are still struggling to do so and may need some additional encouragement  on the home front. There is still plenty of time to get things right but no time to waste. Your help and support is appreciated.

One fun thing, I posted the picture below as a bonus question today for the kids. Any student that was able to correctly identify this animal earned a 5-point bonus on their test. Can any of the parents/guardians out there identify this creepy-looking little guy?