How To Avoid The 3rd Quarter Blues

It's that time again. Time for students to get behind and then have a major meltdown right before the end of 3rd quarter. I get a lot of questions like:
"my grade is bad, my mom wants to know if I can get some extra credit to bring it up?" and
"if I do this homework how much will it bring my grade up?"
1st, heck no! you didn't do your work the first time. And 2nd, I have no idea, maybe you should have thought about that the last 20 homework assignments.

So I have decided to compile my list of ways that students (and parents) can avoid the 3rd quarter blues and the emotional turmoil that goes along with them:

1. Do your freakin' homework! (Can you get a feel for how frustrated I get?) It is not much simpler than that. If you do your homework, not only will it help your grade, but you will only get better at the concept, therefore do better on the test. Only a genius can ace tests without doing the homework. I don't have one single genius. If you were one you wouldn't be in my class.


2. Actually study for your tests. I know, what a concept! I give you a review that looks eerily similar to the test, so chances are if you use that to study, you might do well. Not to mention that the grade formula in my class is 60/40. To make it simple, if you fail all your tests, you will fail my class no matter how well you do on your homework. But I will say that in all my many years of teaching :) I have never had a student that does all their homework and still fails all the tests. Refer to #1.


3. When I let you use a note card on the test, use it! I can't begin to tell you the number of times I have given students the opportunity to write whatever they want on an index card to use on a test and half the class will still come with nothing. But this goes back to the idea that you actually have to do some work at home.


4. When I give you half the hour to work on your homework, use it! I don't like to hear my own voice, so I hate having to lecture the whole hour. But what I hate more than that is giving students time to work and seeing them sit and waste their time talking. I feel myself repeating the threat, "I can make the notes go all hour if we aren't going to work when given time to work" a lot. I am here to answer questions and I am giving you time to finish the work so you don't have to take it home. Again, refer to #1.


5. Keep tabs on your grade (this goes for parents too) Please don't wait until right before the end of the quarter to check on your grade and freak out. In my opinion, midterm is too late to check. If you know you have a tendency to get behind, check often! I try to do a good job of getting my grades entered, so it gets frustrating when people don't use the service provided. **Side note** Also equally as frustrating is the uber-loving parent who checks my grade book everyday and emails seeing when I might be entering grades. Would you like me to teach? Just checking...


6. Do extra practice. I know this is a really hard concept for HS students to understand, but if you struggle with math sometimes a little extra practice can go a long way. But in order to have initiative to get extra practice, you have to have initiative to practice in the first place. Refer to #1.

So there they are. My tips for avoiding the 3rd quarter blues. Follow these steps and you'll be on your way to a better grade! Oh who am I kidding, probably not. What do I know? I'm just the teacher.