Semester Outline Student Responsibilities And Grading: Fill & Download for Free

Our school system is a train wreck.Can we just take a moment and admit that?On the student side of things, the effects of school are pretty rough. Teenagers aren’t machines… they don’t want to and can’t work all the time.If your teenager goes to school everyday, like required by law, they’re in school for 7 hours a day. Most teenagers also do after school activities, which last between an hour or two, unless you play a sport.Your teenager is typically on campus for nine hours a day, five days a week. That means they’re basically on the same schedule as a full time job… on average, spending about 45 hours a week in or on school campus.Once your teenager comes home, they’ll also have to complete homework. Many schools have kids taking eight classes a semester, in high school. There will be four classes a day.I don’t know what idiot decided that there should be thirty minutes of homework added for each grade, but most teachers give about thirty minutes of homework per class. If your teenager is unlucky, they could have up to an hour per class, especially for Honor’s and AP.Meaning that even if you take all C-level classes, your teen will be saddled with about two hours of homework a day. That’s not actually how long the homework takes either…Homework is always going to take longer than it should. At this point, your teenager has been functioning since around five or six in the morning. They’re tired and most likely don’t remember what they were learning. Many kids also struggle with ADHD, ADD, and a small thing called “forgetfulness”.Some families also smack dinner in the middle of homework, which can add to being distracted and lose of any speed they might have picked up.If you’re lucky and not in any Honors, AP, or Duel Enrollment classes, homework might be done in three hours.Meaning that your teenager is actually up, moving, and working for at least 12 hours a day. That doesn’t include the time they spend getting ready, on the bus, eating dinner, or grabbing a snack.A teenager seems to be working just as much as a full time adult, if they’re meeting your unrealistic expectations.By the time everything is out of the way, it’s probably around eight or nine at night. Your teenager has ceased being tired and logged in to Instagram, Discord, or maybe Snapchat to talk with friends. It’s around midnight or maybe even one in the morning before they go to bed.Then the cycle repeats.You might be asking, “If teenagers are tired, why don’t they just go to sleep earlier?”… or even, “Why is this so bad?”…. or saying, “It teaches responsibility!”.Let me explain these three points, specifically.Why don’t teenagers just go to bed earlier?I know there’s a lot of older folks who like to talk about how they got up with the sun and it wasn’t that bad. Some older folks that I know don’t believe in science.Here’s the hard truth- teenagers can’t go to bed early. They’re not wired to even start getting tired until after eleven at night.It’s not something that you can blame on the blue screen, either. It’s called your “circadian rhythm”. Your circadian rhythm changes through out your life… as a child and elder, you go to sleep early. As a teenager and in your middle ages, you sleep a bit later. Your circadian rhythm is also somewhat unique to you and your body. Forcing yourself off of the sleep schedule your body wants can cause anxiety, depression, and a variety of other issues. And you most likely will still feel exhausted, even if you got 7–8 hours of sleep.So, if your teenager went to bed early and gets up at 5 AM, they’ll still be tired and have poor mental health.Why is it so bad?We’ve already talked about the sleep cycle. In addition to a poorly planned school starting time, your teenager is working up to twelve hours a day! Possibly more.You might call this school and say it’s a luxury to learn, but a teenager who is tired and has poor mental doesn’t see it the same way. If they’re even able to stay awake.School isn’t easy and it is, in fact, work. I have a part time job and I can say that having a part job as a restaurant employee or even a retail worker (I’ve done both) is less work and less time consuming that school. For me, I’d say it’s less stressful as well.Your teenager has an underdeveloped brain. Our brains don’t stop growing until about 25. By having your teenager work over the hours of a normal 8–5 office job, a poor sleep schedule, with other mental issues feeding in… it’s like your mixing a recipe for disaster. When you add the constant stress of getting into a good college, getting a job (on top of everything else), keeping grades up, and attending school everyday whether you’re sick or not… well, I’m not sure what you’re expecting.It teaches responsibility!No. It doesn’t. I can one hundred percent promise you that.My time spent in school was anything but responsible. That was where I learned how to ditch, which hallways were the best to hide in, where the administrators walked by, and which classes it was okay to sleep in.I learned about proxies that would let you get past the school internet filters, as well. I spent more time on manga than I ever did learning.And being late to class? No one cares. I’m not kidding… there’s no consequences when kids are late to class. What are the teachers going to do? Send you to a detention that they’ll have to supervise and get yelled at by your parents for assigning it to you? Fail you?I learned responsibility when I got my first part time job. There were benefits and trade offs, too.For one, I usually got to have some in my schedule. I was able to pull up my schedule at any time and check to see if anything was wrong.The downside was that the schedule was strictly enforced. I needed to be at work ten minutes early, so I could clock in on the dot. If you clocked in ten minutes early or ten minutes late, you were in trouble. But overall, it was reasonable.There was also a clear discipline and reward system. If you were late or did something, you got an “occurrence point”. Six occurrence points in a three month term was equal to termination.The rewards system was based on the group performance. If everyone had no accidents in their area for so many days, then we would have a party. Because of this, people were more likely to help each other.And since the system was clearly outlined, there was no blame to be assigned… if it was the manager, then everyone saw that the manager took out ten dollars from the register. If it was the cashier, everyone knew that too. There was nothing to blame when you made a mistake, unless you had a poor trainer (which does happen, from time to time).Working taught me a lot… it’s taught me integrity, responsibility, and teamwork. School, on the other hand, has taught me more about how to break the rules and get away with it than information I might need to know.Let’s look at the teaching side.I know this answer has gotten a bit long, but there are a few things that need to be explained on this side of the story as well.Teachers have it about equally as rough as students. I won’t say more so, mainly because they do get paid and they do have some control of the situation. But that control is very, very limited.First, a teacher has to get up earlier than the students. They’re expected to be in their classroom before their students arrive. They also can’t come in looking like they haven’t slept in a week, because they need to be professional.Younger teachers will typically have a harder time with early mornings (circadian rhythm, remember?), but getting up at 5–6 AM is hard for anyone.Once the first bell rings, a teacher is expected to be teaching the entire class. Class can range from forty five minutes to an hour a half… a good teacher should have the students doing something and every minute of that accounted for.After two to three classes, the teacher will finally have a “break”. If the teacher is lucky, they’ll have twenty minutes to eat, grade/lesson plan, and make sure nothing in their family or friend group has gone astray. After that, it’s back to the books.A teacher technically only has to work 7–8 hours. That’s what people are told, anyway. That’s all they get paid for.But remember those after school activities? Teachers are supervising them. They might also have meetings. After that, they might go home. Or they might stay.Whether they go home or stay, they’ll most likely spend the next two to four hours planning their lessons, grading papers, and sending emails to parents, students, other teachers, and school management.After that, they might eat some dinner, watch TV, and go to bed.Or they might take five or six hours to finish their work, because they’re trying to raise a child or three and they won’t watch the goddamn magic box and leave them alone. Jesus, mommy/daddy needs a drink.How do we fix this?You’ve probably heard it a million times- there’s no easy solution. If you’re surprised that “raising teacher pay” hasn’t been working, you shouldn’t be.The issue isn’t just about the teachers… it’s about the students too.First, we need to change around our school schedules. Middle schools and high schools shouldn’t be starting until 9. Elementary schools should be starting earlier, because children are more productive during early hours and less productive during the late ones.School hours should also be reduced. Let’s face the truth… if students weren’t to take 26 credits and half of them being bogus, we wouldn’t need an 8 hour school day. Stop requiring students to make 4 math classes… I didn’t understand a word of my Algebra Two class, but I’m managing my money just fine. And get rid of homework- majority of kids just google it, write it down, and forget it at home anyway.Instead of forcing useless information down the student’s throats, cut that time out of school. Allow the teachers to have paid planning time. I promise, if you do this, the teachers will teach better and the students will be more engaged, because they haven’t been sitting at a desk for the past six hours.Create more social opportunities in-school. Have one lunch for everyone and extend the time spent at lunch. Make lunch an hour and a half… students can eat lunch, relax, go to the library, maybe even drop in for some extra help.Allow teachers and students time off, without penalty. Look, some days, students just can’t. Same with teachers. When you force them to say they were “sick”, you’re creating dishonesty and distrust, as well as penalizing it when someone says, “I had a bad day and I needed a break”. Allow students and teachers to check off a “mental health day” box instead. Encourage being honest and open… everyone will be happier.And school counselor are a mess as well. You can’t expect them to handle the mental health, schedules, and administrative work of the students. Instead, take the funding away from the school resource officer (I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen ours do anything but walk around the hallway and look menacing while he sips a coffee) and reallocate it. Maybe pay for a school therapist instead.Stop standardized testing like the PSSA’s, ACT, SAT, and ASVAB. Seriously, why are high sophomores taking the ASVAB? They’re not going into the military. Test taking is also a horrendous and inaccurate way to see how smart a student is and what areas they excel in. In reality, it’s actually taking time away from the classroom.We should also change the school’s curriculum. Instead of abstinence, teach about how to have safe sex. Teach about consent and what to do if you didn’t consent. Teach about the important mental health and talk about subjects like abuse- in parental and romantic relationships. Replace four years of math with learning how to file taxes, how to use a graphing calculator, how to budget, and maybe even dabble in teaching about the stock market. Let Shakespeare go (I love reading, but Shakespeare has become the bane of my existence) and try more modern novels that teens might like reading. Allow teens to pick classes that they would enjoy and do well in, rather than shoving classes that they’re going to sleep through down their throats.There’s so much we do to fix the school system. None of it’s easy. Politicians don’t bother fixing it either, because we can’t vote- therefore they don’t care.If you’ve read all the way to the end, I’m sorry. Have a cookie?And vote, god dammit- or I’ll take your cookie away.Edit:Just wanted to clarify a few things!One, when I said, “Vote, god dammit-“, I didn’t mean upvote. I meant VOTE. As in the election. Thank you to everyone who did!Two, I’m not saying that math class should be taken out of circulation. I’m saying to stop forcing it down kid’s throats.A lot of kids are good at STEM! Let them be good at STEM. Allow them to take all the math, science, and tech classes they want. But just because they’re good at this stuff doesn’t mean I am… stop trying to make me take Pre-Calc, reallocate the money and class space to students who want to be in Pre-Calc.Same goes for English and History fields… some of us are great it! I really enjoy taking these classes. But people who hate writing to the degree where they’d just rather fail? Let them take another math class and let me take another English class. Also, stop cutting English/History/Elective funding to add more math and technology classes when History doesn’t even have the funding for up to date textbooks.Thank you for coming to my mini TedTalk, I’m not popular enough to be on the real thing.

Sorry in advance for the huge answer. I took 15 AP classes in high school, and scored 4s and 5s on all of them, so maybe I can provide some support for Luis Martinez’s (excellent) answer. Here are the AP courses I took (and grade levels, which give some indication of their difficulty. For example, Human Geo is mostly taught to 9th graders, since it’s the easiest one my school offered) and my thoughts.9th: Human Geography10th: Chemistry*, English Language, Physics B*, US History11th: Biology, Calculus AB, Statistics, World History*12th: Calculus BC, English Literature, Environmental Science, Latin*, Studio Art: Drawing, US Government*Tests on which I scored a 4I’ll also borrow Luis’s ranking system, if you don’t mind. From easiest to hardest:Easiest:1. Human Geography: Very easy. For these first three, outlining a textbook got me most of the way to a five. A great introduction to AP for a younger student, IF taught by a teacher who understands AP courses.2. Environmental Science: In my senior year, this was just laughably easy. Some kids who had never taken an AP test before still messed it up, but anyone who had taken other AP classes was pretty much guaranteed a 5 if they took it seriously.3. US Government: This one depends on how your school offers it, I suppose. I had 2 semesters of just US Gov, which made the test the easiest I’d taken. I was actually hoping for a perfect score, but I must’ve messed up a MC question or two. If you only spend one semester on it, I can imagine that this test might be a bit more difficult.4. English Language: This is the first of the actually challenging tests/classes on my list. The class was very easy, but the test is hard to prepare for if you’re not already fairly good at English. Reading comprehension skills are a must.Average:5. Physics B: Nowadays this is easier, and is split up into Physics 1 and 2. This is the first (of four) 4 I recieved. I took the class over the summer, though, and did no studying until two weeks before the test a few months later, so take that with a grain of salt. The class itself was very easy. I hear horrible things about Physics C, though.6. Statistics: In my school, this was the easy AP math course. Students who claim that they’re not “math people” usually find statistics easier to work through, since it uses different analytical skills. People who enjoy math tend to find it similarly easy, I think. The test was around the same difficulty level as Calculus for me--probably a bit easier. Everyone should take this class! (Disclaimer: I am now a Statistics major, so I might be biased here)7. Calculus BC: See AB8. Calculus AB: These two classes are very similar, and actually cover a lot of the same material. That’s why I see BC as an easier class. Once you’ve taken AB, there’s really only about a semester’s worth of material left, and since a lot of people take a full semester of BC, I think a lot of students feel extra prepared for. The material is similarly difficult though. The one thing I would say about Calculus though is that, even as a current math major, I did not find the actual AP tests to be particularly easy. The thing is, the questions are very difficult (like most AP tests, you’re unlikely to make a 90%), but these tests are graded with very generous score distributions, since most kids who get to Calculus are already on advanced math tracks. (Just look at the wiki page). I remember not finishing the BC multiple choice sections by about 8 questions, and I still made a comfortable 5.9. Biology: A VERY hard class at my school, but after that the actual test was easy. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about how AP Bio is the hardest AP. Lies!10. US History: Similar to AP Calculus in difficulty level, except testing different skills (now writing and critical thinking. When I took this course, the worst thing about it was the killer outlining/project workload required to cover all the material. However, they’ve redesigned this course several times in the past few years, making the questions much more difficult (or so I hear).11. English Literature: AP Lit requires a lot of close reading, and a lot of seniors at my school struggled in the class. Even more struggled with the test, though, and I think I was the only one in my class of 20+ students to make a 5. Like the other English, I think this test required English comprehension and writing skills that are hard to learn in two semesters. Taking other AP English/History classes before helped a lot, though.Hardest:12. Chemistry: *sigh* Another 4. I call this one was a fluke, too, though. I took this test right after the redesign, and scored a 5 on the practice, but they added an 8th free response question to the actual test, which I forgot to do. (RIP me). This class was ruthless, though. At my school it’s offered with an extra semester’s worth of lab credit, and it was still killer. It’s also mostly reserved for juniors and seniors.13: World History: I found this class a bit easier than US History, though I took it a year after. (Still before the current swath of redesigns). The test proved to be more difficult though, because so much material is on it. (I’m still against the redesign.) A lot of kids found it easier than I did, though, so perhaps I just didn’t take it seriously enough.14: AP Studio Art: Drawing: This course is very unique, and doesn’t even have a test, so I’m not sure if it counts. You obviously need to be a skilled artist going into the course, or else you’ll probably get a 1 or 2. Second, you have to figure out exactly how to plan out a portfolio that will appeal to the college board (they like weird artsy stuff like melting birds). The hardest part, though, was actually making 20 or so high quality pieces to submit to the AP board. It requires a lot of motivation and talent, and most of my classmates spent the last few weeks cramming out half-baked drawings in order to reach their quota. It’s a different kind of challenging, but very few people have what it takes to make a 5 in this course, which is why very few take it.15: AP Latin. By far the hardest AP test I had to take, even after 5 years of Latin. This was the only class in which I HOPED for a 4, instead of a 5. In this course, you translate and read The Aeneid and De Bello Gallico throughout the year and are tested on those along with other suprise Latin passages. There’s a lot of analysis of the text that you have to do, like in AP Literature, but before you even analyze anything you have to translate it first! Since it’s a dead language, there’s no speaking or listening component, so I can’t say how this test compares to other language courses. For me, though, it was killer!I should note that I consider myself to be a fairly well-rounded student, and I don’t really find any group of subjects to be particularly difficult compared to the others. I now study math, history, and political economy in college, if that tells you anything. All in all, I found most AP classes to be about the same level of difficult, with a few outliers. The tests were, for the most part, very difficult, which actually helped my self esteem, oddly enough. No one expects even the best students to make a perfect score on an actual AP test, which took some of the pressure off. Though, taking 15 AP classes, I certainly faced plenty of pressure.

Whenever students have something bad to tell me, such as why they’ll be missing class or why they won’t be able to submit an assignment on time, I’ll get an email structured something like this:Dear Dr. Dinin,I just want to tell you how much I’m enjoying your class. It’s one of the best classes I’ve ever taken, and it’s a shame more classes aren’t like yours.Also, I wanted to mention that, unfortunately,… [blah, blah, blah — some detail about the excuse and how they know it violates XYZ policy in my syllabus that will result in a bad grade, and they hope I can forgive the penalty because obviously the circumstances make their issue a valid exception to the policy].Anyway, thanks for understanding. And thanks, again, for such an amazing class. I’ve been telling my friends about it, and I know at least five people who are already planning to register next semesterSincerely,Manipulative StudentHonestly, for the first year or two of my teaching, I would get these kinds of emails and think: “I’m an amazing professor… my students really love me.” Sometimes, I’d even show the emails to my wife and friends to share how enthusiastic the students were about my classes.Unfortunately, regardless of whether or not my classes were actually enjoyable, I wasn’t being a good teacher because I was prioritizing whether or not students liked me and my classes above whether I was teaching valuable lessons.Often, however, the most valuable lessons are the kinds of lessons that make people unhappy. And, because students feel safer having difficult conversations via email instead of in-person, many of the emails I receive are emails that require me to teach difficult lessons about responsibility, attendance, work ethic, and so on.So, to answer your question, the kinds of emails that appeal to me are the ones that don’t try to hide their difficult messages inside of gratuitous flattery. Instead, I want students to take responsibility for their own mistakes. Send emails that are respectful, direct, and honest:Dear Dr. Dinin,I had three tests to study for this week, it’s two hours before your paper is due, and there’s no way I’m going to get it done. I’m sorry. It’s my fault for not starting it sooner.I wanted to notify you that I’ll be submitting the paper late.I understand the policies of the class as outlined in the syllabus, and I recognize that submitting my work late requires you to assess a penalty. I would, of course, appreciate it if, considering the circumstances, you’d consider granting me a last-minute extension; however, I recognize that I’m at fault, I take full responsibility for the error, and I completely understand why an extension may not be possible.Sincerely,Student Who Takes Responsibility For His/Her Own ActionsWhile sending an honest email explaining the issue isn’t necessarily going to earn leniency, it will earn respect and appreciation: two things that will actually improve your perception of me and the overall quality of my classes.Agree with me? Think my answer is ridiculous? Read more about my experiences teaching entrepreneurship, and share your thoughts.