I got this from a group member today. It seems like this is a tough part of the year:
Hi Ben,
A student came into my room yesterday upset about his grade. He disagreed with me about some jGR grades I’d given him in November. He got heated and walked out. Then, he came in at the end of the day with an admin and we had an impromptu meeting. Last week I could’ve entered a couple jGR grades, but chose not to. I was questioned by the student and the admin why I didn’t do have grades last week. I was stuck. The student at that point sensed that and smugly asked me why I didn’t put in those grades. The student also felt like I was grading him based on his past image when he said he “recently” started making a change where he would be on task and not disruptive. While I did notice some change in him, for the better, he wasn’t an angel, especially not every day. The admin then asked me if I had ever given him a grade based on a poor image of the student. I was insulted. I try to give honest grades, and many times I am lenient. It really rubbed me the wrong way. And now a counselor is asking me to come by to explain my rubric to him. This counselor is also this student’s counselor. It seems like he’s being diplomatic. I am trying to see this as people just getting to be acquainted with how I teach. I’m starting to feel on the defensive though. My heart seems to be getting heavier the last week or so. Any encouragement you can give would be helpful. Thank you.
My response:
I know this feeling all too well. I don’t know how to give encouragement because I also felt totally defeated by similar incidents over the course of my own career. It’s like these people are just stupid, so can anything be done, really?
The kid’s smugness tells it all. He’s not there to learn. He has learned how to challenge adults and get away with winning. This is a very toxic school culture, it seems, where two adults in the administration are supporting a student without fully understanding what you are doing. It’s time to justify your work once again, to fools.
I’d certainly stick by the grade I gave him. They can’t fault you for not putting a grade in the grade book in a certain week. You are well within your rights and well within the standards with the jGR rubric ( a lot closer to the standards than anything else out there), so any discussion should not make you feel defensive.
This is another one of those situations where if you look in the Administrator/Teacher/Parent Re-education category you might find some printouts for them, to help them understand. That is, IF they want to understand. It sounds like they want you to bow to their (ignorant) authority, which seems to be the norm in schools these days, instead of learning from you as they should.
If it went to some sort of academic court you would win, of course, because you are following the standards. The administrator, the kid and the counselor have no idea what you are doing, challenging you in this way, so they must be educated. You must stay calm and educate. This is the kind of thing that warrant leaving that place. There ARE schools where people understand the research and the standards. You are working with fools, basically.
I don’t know how I ever got through my career, because this kind of wonkiness by idiots wore me out too. That’s about the best I can offer you in the encouragement arena. Maybe someone else in the group can say a few words to help you. The fact is that this kind of thing is why teaching sucks so much.