Today Doesn’t Work For Me

I tend to be rather flexible on late work. I get the purpose of not taking late work to teach kids responsibility about deadlines and procrastination, but I also teach in a school where many of our kids are involved in several extracurricular activities, including jobs and church activities, so I’m willing to be flexible and work around their schedule as long as they’re willing to meet me halfway and make classwork a priority.

Unfortunately, that leads to abuse. Today is the last day of the grading period. I’ve had several students come up to me. “If I don’t turn anything in today, what will my grade be?” And when the answer comes back “68”, they’re not happy — 70 is the minimum to pass. “Well, that sucks. Now I actually have to do my work, and I only have today to do it!”