For the professional development component of this online class day, I chose to write a short journal entry explaining

something thats been on my mind for a couple of weeks now as it relates to my focus class. I think it will be very productive for me to get some of these thoughts out on paper to stop them from just bouncing around in my head. Ever since having taken on three classes for Guided Lead Teaching II, the majority of my time spent working outside of school I have spent grading. Grading is very time consuming indeed, especially for English teachers: grading for us is not, nor should it be, an automatic affair. By that I mean we must be very thoughtful in the ways in which we assess and subsequently grade our students work. Whats more, if ever a student were to take issue with a particular grade we gave them, we would have to have a well thought-out defense at the ready for why we gave them, say, a 16/20 as opposed to a 20/20 on one of their weekly writing assignments (you didnt properly contextualize your evidence!). On top of all that, Air Force Academy High School has a policy according to which, come every Friday, you need a minimum of three grades in the grade book for each class period, a policy I was only just made aware of just last week. Needlessness to say, these past couple of weeks have seen a marked increase in the time I spend every day grading students work. Of particular concern is the work of the students in my seventh period, my focus class. This period is the co-taught English III class which means that the teaching responsibilities are, theoretically, split 50/50 between the content area teacher (me) and the special ed. instructor (there are seven students with IEPs in my focus class). Besides the students with IEPs, there are a number of other struggling students in the class which definitely makes it harder than most to teach. As of today, more than half of the students in the class are receiving Ds and Fs. We are also quickly approaching the point of no return where it will be impossible for most of these

students to raise their grades before the end of the semester. Long story short, my focus class could be looking at a 50% failure rate for this semester. I feel rather justified in saying that I have done nearly everything I could have to address my students needs while at the same time holding them to the standards that the school have set for them: and what standards! The school very recently revised their official homework policy which now equates to all us junior teachers being required to assign our students 20 minutes of homework each per night (for a total of about 2 hours of homework every night). The idea is that we are preparing the students for the reality of college, to which we hope that all of them will eventually be applying. What the problem has become, however, is that students are no longer getting all this homework they have to do every day in on time, or even doing it all. The new late work policy is also rather strict: any assignment turned in even one day late is automatically 50% off. After that point, the students only have five days to get the homework in or we cant accept it anymore. I have been calling the parents/guardians of the students who have a D or an F in the class every Friday for a couple of weeks now to inform them of their students grades, but it has been hard getting in contact with them. Had I know of the dire predicament of some of my students earlier (I still do not have direct access to the grade book; every entry I put into it has to first go through my MT), I feel like I could have taken more steps to help them. At this point, I dont know what I can do and its making me sick. Reducing the amount of homework we give them is out of the question as my MT is a great believer in preparing our students for what she imagines their work loads are going to be once they move off to college. We could assess more of the work our students do during class as a way to offset the damage their not turning in their homework is doing to their grades, but I feel my MT would also object to this as she wont find

it meaningful assessment. I guess my biggest question is, how do you raise a students grade without going easier on them, by keeping to the standards set for them. Also: how do you combat student apathy, making them aware of the importance of their grades and what failing a class might mean to them down the road? I know that none of these questions have easy answers. We are going to have a meeting Monday (my MT, the co-teacher, and I) to discuss what, I anything, we can do moving forward to possibly reduce the student failure rate. Hopefully, a concrete plan to combat this problem will come out of this. Fingers crossed. I also wonder if this challenge that I am currently facing in my focus class is unique to me or if other interns are facing a similar one. It would be nice to talk to some of my peers and see what ideas/thoughts/suggestions they might have for me in the months to come!