Grading Papers

[Ridgerunner]

First standardized test in the 8th grade? The first one I can remember was 3rd grade, I imagine I was taking them before but can't remember. I also don't have a clue why we were taking them. What were they used for? They were not high stakes tests where you have to pass them to advance to the next grade.

I'm not convinced that knowing the relevance of a subject is going to motivate many students. How many kids think that far ahead? How many adults think that for ahead? We are all different with different motivators. Some people are more competitive than outers. Some want to please. I think a lot of that motivation has to come from within the kid.

I also think the greatest motivators are the parents. Other people in the child's sphere can influence them but parents by far have the most influence. I don't want to downplay the importance of teachers, a good teacher can have a lot of influence especially on certain kids, but for the most part a teacher is going to have a lot of problems overcoming the influence of a lot of parents.

 

[digitS']

My father completed the 6th grade.

Mom dropped out as a high school sophomore - went to work in logging camp in the cook's shack. They grew up to be a mechanic and a hairdresser. Dad wanted to farm. Mom didn't. I couldn't have had a more proletarian family.

My great, great grandfather was a preacherman. Maybe he went to college, maybe a seminary only. I don't know. As far as I know, I was the first person in my lineage to go to college. Out of 14 aunts and uncles who reach adulthood, there was 1 who went to college. He became a rocket scientist. I am not kidding! But, I didn't really know him and he was the youngest out of all 16 of that generation. So, he was in school while I was in school.

Anyway, we are still learning how to get public education right. Really! It's always a New World in the current epoch.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

When I saw the title, I thought another sucker like me. When wife and I were dating, this was our weekend of fun. She taught HS business. She used to grade their typing practice papers in an effort to help them improve. Needless to say, she quit when kids born-couldn't handle the stress that the students and parents didn't care if their kids got an education or not.

Public education is in trouble as Indiana has "no kid left behind"--means no one is flunked even though they can't do kinder garden work.......child doesn't want to give effort, send them HOME. Let parents deal with them.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I remember red ink and you either got a silver star or gold star, but I don't remember why and I think if it was wrong it was a BIG red check mark, but when I started homeschooling using a company where we mail things to be graded, they use x for wrong and there are no check marks for anything, so I started using red x and I started buying stickers for the kids with smiley faces and other stuff and then when almost finished this year with DS, I remembered the silver star or gold star and now wish I had used that instead. I do use on my lists for personal use when completed I use a check mark.

 

[digitS']

...child doesn't want to give effort, send them HOME. Let parents deal with them.

And, when the child is too old for the parents to deal with?

I have "an acquaintance" -- I'm wondering if she is reaching a time in her life when she is afraid of her children. ... not just for them but of them. Yep.

One has already served time (10 months) in a "correctional facility". He has 2 kids. His brother has one and does nothing (except drugs). The 4 young adults and 3 babies are all under 21. Grandmother goes to work everyday. She may have trouble getting home in the snow but she has problems beyond what is happening today and so do we all.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

Some people should NOT have children.

I'll leave it at that so that I don't hi jack this thread.

 

[lcertuche]

I had a English-Lit professor that would put a check mark on papers.

A check with a minus sign meant a B.
A check mark with a plus was an A.
A check mark was a B+.

 

[digitS']

What about a C?

It sounds like a graduate studies class where you had better not get anything less than an A or B.

The Japanese use an O, "instead of the check mark, and the check mark is commonly used instead of an X for wrong." Wikipedia

Steve
⸮ ¿

 

[so lucky]

I saw something on PBS today about kids trying to go to school in Mosul. The teenage boys were risking life and limb to travel through dangerous territory to go to a makeshift school. Many kids there have not been to school in 2 or more years. They were so eager to learn.
What a difference in attitudes we see in the world.

 

[dickiebird]

I never went to a public school until I did a few college courses.
The main thing I took away from school was not what repetition so I would necessarily remember math equations or what is the capitol of each state/country, whatever. But where to go to research and get the answer.
That mantra has served me greatly as the years progressed.
Not that some things were not beat into my brain but they didn't have to be!!!
I think public education is a crock.
Over the years I've had a few young people that have worked around our place. All were HS students, but none of them could read a tape measure before they started helping me.
Ask them what 1/2 of 90" is and they pull out their phone.
But by God the HS has a $500000.00 new artificial grass field and a $90000.00 new score board, but you can't teach a kid to read a ruler!!!
Rant over...

THANX RICH