Good Morning Blog

In my last post, Better Late Than Never , I described why I allow students to complete assignments after the due date. In short, I believe there is instructional value in completing the work even though the due date has passed. But students will get the most instructional value from the assignment when the assignment is completed correctly. And that's what this post is about; why I let students redo assignments. I have seen students receive graded work back and immediately toss it in the recycling bin without so much as glancing past the score they received more times than I can count. If the student was making a mistake that I commented on, they never saw it. If they were doing something especially well that I commented on, they never saw it. I could have drawn funny pictures of cats for all they knew. They never would have seen them. Once the assignment was graded it was over. The students felt there was no more learning to be done. But there was. I made comments about wha...

I knew when I was in the 7 th grade that I wanted to be a Mathematics teacher. I knew I would need to go to college in order to make that happen. I knew I wanted to understand what it was I was going to teach so I would need to pay attention in class and do my homework. And it worked. I am a high school Mathematics teacher. Success! To be totally honest, I don't recall doing that much homework in high school. There are only a couple of instances that I can recall doing homework outside of the school day; studying for a Spanish exam with my brother, and trying to read " Beowulf " in the dimmed lights of the auditorium during play rehearsal. The other stuff must have gotten done. I did graduate. I just have no recollection of doing it. But I'll admit it, I'm not a stickler for due dates. I never had difficulty meeting them, but that was only because of the threat of getting a 0% on something and I wanted good grades. If I could turn in assignments late wi...