Wednesday, March 25, 2009

End of Quarter

The end of the quarter is always a double-edged sword. It means that we are one quarter closer to summer vacation, which is always a wonderful thought. This particular end of quarter means that we are closer to Spring break - must I even elaborate on my feelings? But, the end of the quarter does bring a bit of frustration to teachers. There are always those students who want to make up every missed assignment during the last two days of the quarter. The parents are sometimes worse, deciding to check Pinnacle at the very last minute and then asking if their child can make up an assignment that is now seven or eight weeks old - grrrrrrrr...

Despite having to deal with the bad parts of the end of the quarter, this time, I will look on the bright side. We have nine more weeks to go and I am prepared to make those nine weeks pleasant, enjoyable, and useful. The second half of the semester is always my favorite. I get to teach the novels that I really love (as opposed to the required works that I have taught upteen million times) and my students are more adept at working to the level that I expect.

Here's to a great 2nd quarter!

8 comments:

Heyman's Red Carpet said...

Students always make the mistake of trying to make up all work and do extra credit at the very last minute of the semester. I'm not going to lie if I can bump my B to an A in the last day I'll do anything I can. At the same time I try to do all my work on time and get the best grades I can so I don't have to stress like others at the end of the semester!
On the other hand, I'm looking forward to summer vacation and spring break very much!!! Everyone needs a break once in a while and I think for most of us it is very well earned. I am glad to hear that we will be reading books that are more enjoyable. Actually, I didn't mind the past books we've read. I didn't think any were horrible. The crucible was my favorite. I found it very interesting.
Summer is just around the corner!

Faustino Conde said...

I gotta agree with your view of the distracted parents who always want what's "best" for their kid even if it means killing the teacher with all of the extra work, I believe that the law should give no resposability to the teachers at all instead if the kid didn't turn in the assigment he is bound to fail miserably. Also being the fact that the last quarter is always the most relaxed I hope that you have plenty of more indepth activities coming up such as maybe a "Podcast". Which I happen to notice when scanning through the pages of your syllabus.
*cough* *cough*

*Raises glass in agreement*
Here's to a great 2nd Quarter

Kevin said...

The only problem is this whole week in between quarters and spring break. It's pointless because this week just brings the teaching and student aches and we forget everything that happened. Nine more weeks it seems so short every week seems so slow at first and just flies by at the end. I know I'm gonna miss your class, but you'll be my teacher for that other class so it's all good. It's kind of sad to think time goes by so fast minutes hours days weeks months years just go. I feel sometimes that if we didn't measure time like always we would feel like everything is forever.

frenchykevin23 said...

I totally agree with you with the summer and spring break thing because I cannot wait till spring break, it is going to be sick nasty!!!! But I see what your talking about with the make up assignments, I agree with you on that because everyone knows what they missed, they really do because we always check our grades, but they never think its a big deal, and at the end of the year, when they see that it will affect their grade than they start to bitch and they decide that they now want to make it up. Well tough luck, your right, students should take responsibility and not have their parents start complaining when they finally realize what they did wrong, the world just doesn’t work like that and people need to realize before it’s too late. So don’t sweat it about all those kids complaining, just say "Tough luck" because they had the chance to make it up and they didn’t.

I personally cannot wait to read the new books, even though I hate reading. The past few books have actually been interesting and if the new books you teach us are more interesting then I might actually want to read them. I kind of actually enjoyed "their eyes were watching god", I thought it was an amazing book an extremely entertaining to read so I hope the books in the future will be the same.

I hope we have a fun second quarter and I hope I get an "A" in your class!!!! =]

Tommy23 said...

I favor the second quarter myself. The first quarter is more of a learning period, but the second you more or less know what the teachers expect from you. I wasn't one of those kids asking to make up assignments at the last minute, but I was satisfied with my grades. I hope this year ends great!

itsisakidd said...

Yeyyy! I can't wait til spring break!(: it shall be fun.. anyways I can feel your pain Ms. Stoklosa, remember my mom's a math teacher, it's not that easy,actually frustrating when you have so many things on your mind and you just want to get the job done!

autumn_nicole said...

I've never tried to make up assignments within two weeks because I'm just too lazy, but I do have friends that do that. It seems like a horrible way to get things done. I'd rather just do what's assigned and hand it in on time even if I'm up half the night doing it. It feels good to be finished with your work and not have it hanging over your head all the time. I'm excited for 2nd quarter. I really like your class and can't wait to take visual lit :)

sportiebrat said...

I ENJOY THE SECOND QUARTER OVER THE FIRST BECAUSE YOU ARE USED TO YOUR TEACHERS AND THE IS ONLY NINE MORE WEEKS UNTIL SUMMER OR WINTER BREAK. I ALWAYS HAVE A ROUGH TIME DURNIG THE FIRST QUARTER, MOST OF THE TIMES I HAVE TO BREAK HABITS FROM MY PAST TEACHERS. ALSO, I GET USED TO THE NEW SUBJECTS.