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Message: [QUOTE="M.S.G., post: 4658741, member: 10660"] I agree with much of what has been said here, however, through all of that I think this is one of the best years of my career. I got out of an urban district with a myriad of problems after the year started and found my "forever home" in a small but stable district with an equal commute. Things went further off the rails after I left my former district, making the local news after a gun incident didn't even prompt a lockdown from administration, can't even make this stuff up.. I am seeing the lack of maturity for sure, 10th graders act like 9th graders, 9th like 8th and so forth. I'm not sure where this will turn around after COVID, or if it even will. I will say that I've always been a pretty easy grader, my philosophy has been if a kid is likely not going to college and does "some" work, I'm going to bump a 47 to a 60 after making them sweat a little bit. Maybe I'm part of the problem instead of the solution because after COVID these kids just feel like they can't fail. That being said, someone earlier mentioned students not taking agency, and I think that's the bigger issue. The academic apathy I see is startling, but where I see it is in the middle. I have a 10th grade Honors course that is potentially the strongest group I've ever had, and I have a 10th grade co-taught class that's mostly IEP students and they have flourished since I took over. The biggest concern is that middle group, they could absolutely care less about anything that takes more than a day to complete. Our largest grade in Q4 was a research paper and I had to literally beg and plead with kids to turn something in. Then, I would get absolute sludge. As if I didn't explain profusely - along with including "How to" resources how the paper needed to be formatted, how their arguments should be made and so forth. Many of these kids couldn't be bothered to attempt to do it right. Perhaps I'm old school and a stickler, but I mean, if a kid isn't going to college that's all fine and good, but turning in research papers not in Times New Roman 12" is just lazy to me. Behavior plays along in conjunction with this as well. The problem in this case is administration. The states have made it more and more difficult to suspend kids. We don't even have an in school suspension program, perhaps that's due to lack of bodies but who knows. Many teachers either ignore behaviors, or don't bother writing kids up because nothing is going to happen or change. That leads to a kid coming back to your class 20 minutes after you threw them out with a grin on their face because they know they won. Granted, we had an absent principal who was finally fired in March and an interim leading the way since. I still love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else, but the way teachers are treated by their own districts, parents, and the public still disgusts me. Remember that 2 month stretch when COVID started when we were hailed as heroes by everyone? That is looooooooooooooooooooooooong gone and we're back to lazy whiners who "get the whole summer off". Keep fighting the good fight folks, our "whole summer off" is right around the corner.. [/QUOTE]

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