Where did I go wrong???

It is time for an update on our voyage. We are almost into home port for our Christmas vacation, oops, ‘Winter Break’ and it can’t come soon enough!

Passengers are putting the final touches on their projects for our History Fair in January. When I gave the assignment in EARLY October, travelers were given explicit instructions including a deadline of Friday, December 8th 2006. I knew that I had some flexibility ~ but tomorrow is the final day they can be accepted as we have exams all week. Plus I have to GRADE all of these masterpieces.

This past Friday was just one of those bizarre days in the life of a teacher. One of the passengers, a.k.a. Sweatshirt Boy, approached me to ask if he could turn his in on Monday. My mind went into overdrive and I asked how much of it had he done. I already knew the answer.

“I haven’t started, Miss.”

“Ok, but remember that your project counts 40% of your grade this quarter.”

“Don’t worry, Miss. I‘ll turn it in.”

Five minutes later as I am helping a student tweak his power point on Pearl Harbor, Sweatshirt Boy approaches. I had since returned to my desk as my allergies were kicking me to the curb and I needed to take some medicine. He is holding a sheet of loose leaf paper and a pen.


“Miss, would you please write down for me what I need to do for my project?”

Words cannot describe the gamut of emotions churning through my mind at that point. I just asked him if he could ask someone else or return to his seat. Then my worst nightmare began; I began to weep silently. I kept replaying the past seven weeks ~ did I not give them the information they needed to be successful? Hadn’t the librarian done the same thing each time we went to the library? Where did I go wrong?


“Are you ok, Miss?”

“Hey Sweatshirt Boy, what did you do to Miss?”

I asked the student nearest me to go and get my colleague next door so I could leave the prison. Upon my return, you could have heard a pin drop. They stayed that way until the bell rang……. That doesn’t happen too often. The above is entirely true; I don’t think I could have fabricated a better anecdote.


My students know that I will give them every chance in the book to be successful but when does the onus fall on the student? Originally, S.B. was supposed to work with two other students so I didn’t follow up on his project’s status. This child has told me repeatedly that he does not like Social Studies and I tell him that in life we have to do things that we don’t relish doing. I have 125 other passengers that I have to tend to along with him. What can I do differently next time to prevent another scenario like this?

We will put in to port December 19th; the officers and crew will report for duty on Dec. 20th for in-service, etc.


On another note, I have reached 50 posts since beginning my blog in May!



~butterfly angel~