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end of the semester

There's only nine days left of the semester.... and I'll bet half of my students are flunking. I'm too afraid to actually count for fear that it's true. Am I a bad teacher? If their failure were due to low scores, I might have a better picture. The fact is that most are failing because of missing assignments. No papers, no daily papers.

I do remember not turning in assignments in school - but I wasn't ever stupid enough to totally bail on an assignment that had been worked on for a week or so. Most of the parents are worthless. They don't give a crap if their kid actually does homework, just as long as they pass. The logic of this is a bit strange... Am I not getting through to the students that these assignments are worth a large amount of points? Do I need to make a change with the assignments? Which ones?

I saw this last year and no one else seemed to be having the same problem... may be I need to plan more or lay it out more or something. I'm just not getting it through.

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