New policies for the new semester

Hi. Welcome to this edition of my web log.

As the teacher of this geometry class, I have come to a conclusion about a few things that have been bothering me as the semester came to a close last week. Let me just write here that I understand more and more that high school students are immature, basically, and that any 'favors' or 'breaks' that I give them (under the guise of 'fairness' or 'helping them out' ) only creates dependency and continues their immaturity. Any breaks or favors I give high school students will only create a climate where teachers are disrespected and used by students, mostly to inflate low grades or to gratify their egos. I want students to excel, to do their best in school. I want students to respect themselves, their classmates, their school and, most of all, their teachers. If I want this to happen, some changes will have be made by me in my relationship to students, so that I can foster the type of relationship that I want, one that I feel is healthy and appropriate.

One change I made was in the last minute work that students gave me. (See below my new policy on late homework.) If a student claimed that they had done a lot of homework and they had no proof that I had previously collected their work, I did not give the student credit for the work that they claimed to have done. There were just too many errors. Some students were simply lying to inflate their grades, and I did not go along with their con game. Secondly, I uncovered a cheating ring in a particular class. All students who cheated received zeros on their final exam. There will be no discussion about them "not" cheating. The evidence is overwhelming. Zero is their score.

Revision of some important policies

1) Late homework is a disservice to the teacher and the class. Don't even think about doing it, unless the teacher gives you permission (and that will be done rarely.) If you do, a) your work will be discounted 20 percent, and after one week, the teacher will not accept the late homework at all. (If your late homework is due to an illness, that is acceptable.) Please do not approach me to correct an error on your lists of assignments unless you have your sign-off sheet with which you can verify that the assignment was done.. All students will be provided a list of assignments every two to three weeks. There will be a posted homework and assignments chart, just as there was last semester. All homework assignments (unless you are notified otherwise) should be placed in a separate notebook or a separate section of your three-ring binder).

2) There will be many more reports and assignments that use the geometry we are learning in class this semester. A rubric will be developed to grade these assignments. These assignments are mandatory, must be written neatly or typed. If students copy work from reference sources, the grade will be F on the paper.

3) Students who cheat on exams or quizzes will earn zeros on the assessments. The circumstantial evidence of cheating will be all that will be required for cheating to be uncovered and charged against the student.

Semester Final Exam Results and Comment

4) The results of the semester final were some of the lowest I have ever experienced. I warned all of the geometry classes I teach in 2007 that the failure to study, to do the homework assignments, etc. would possibly result in low scores. Well, the scores are in, and out of over 160 students who took the exam, 150 failed. I will do whatever I can to teach better in the coming semester. But will students do their part, and come to class prepared to learn?

January's Topics @Triangles

This month, I decided to review all of the chapter 4, Triangle Basics.

What are these basics?

* Definition of triangle

* Angle sum of a triangle

* Classification of triangles by a) length of side or b) size of angles

* Angle bisectors

* Line bisectors

* Triangle inequality theory

That's it! Wow! An incredible topic, tons of information. Lots for students to learn and study.

Tutorial is available in the Multimedia Center daily, 6:45am - 7:45 am, and 3:00pm - 4:00pm. I am available for an appointment with students Monday-Friday after school until 3:30pm.

Education is the way that your mind opens to endless opportunities. Rejecting education is ingorance. Ignorance is a poor choice for any living being. Positive Action is based on education. Come to school ready to learn. Find something interesting about every class you attend. Enter to learn, depart to serve.