Poof! Gone is our Middle School Honor Roll

[Magpie]

This is in response to Magpie. As a matter of fact, that's the first time I have mentioned my students as "babies." And, you can keep your opinion to yourself about what I said. I've been teaching for 28 years, and I've seen those who go to honor roll ceremonies and don't get awards. It only makes them feel bad that they didn't get the awards or all the perks that come with them. So, I think I have enough experience to know what I'm talking about. Try being in the classroom for just one day. You'll see.

Um, when you post on a message board, you are ASKING for opinions. Seriously, that's how these things work.

Magpie, I will also say I know exactly what dyslexia is. I have taught those children for 28 years. You can't be stupid and be dyslexic.

Sure you can! You can be mentally disabled and dyslexic, though it's harder to diagnose in low-IQ children. You can also be a genius and dyslexic, and of course you can be anything in between. Dyslexia is a disorder of visual perception and sequential processing. It's got absolutely NOTHING to do with intelligence.

 

[Magpie]

In today's progressive society everyone has to made to feel good. No disappointments allowed. Thank god we didn't have this attitude in Thomas Edison's day. He would have quit after his first failure. He realized he had more failures than successes but kept going.

He held over 1300 US and foreign patents.

To never fail is to never succeed.

Thomas Edison was a terrible student, who was home schooled from age 8 after a teacher called him "retarded". I'm not sure what sort of conclusion to draw from that...

 

[punkin]

Thomas Edison was a terrible student, who was home schooled from age 8 after a teacher called him "retarded". I'm not sure what sort of conclusion to draw from that...

...maybe that teachers consider bright, exceptional and completely "out-of-the-box" thinkers to be retarded?

 

[TwinsinCA]

By the way,my school has 50 teachers. They expend 2 hours gathering data, creating and distributing honor roll certificates 4 times a year. Add it up. That's 400 man hours. If teachers get paid at at, say, $20/hour, that's $8000.

Now,that's the cost side for just one school. Multiply that by 50 other schools in the district, and that's $40,000.

Would somebody please give me the benefit side of this equation?

In our elementary school I am sure it takes no where near that long to write the names and date on the certificates. The teacher doesn't personally create them, the school does. And distribution is part of an assembly for that grade during school hours. It is no more skin off the teachers' collective noses than any other assembly they have during a school day.

Getting report cards done is what takes considerable time every quarter. The Honor Roll is insignificant to their work load.

The benefit is the pride and sense of achievement the kids feel when they get on the honor roll. To some kids it may not matter at all. But I am sure to others is it an incentive to do well, and continue to do well, in school.

And I know this is an old thread, but my kids' school is on the trimester system and report cards already come out the end of this week. And that means the first honor roll assembly of the year will be sometime next week.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I haven't read the whole thread, but the OP lost me when she said that under the old system 90% of the kids got the award. Being in the top 90% of your class isn't really worth celebrating. It's not a special achievement. For most kids it's something they can do with relatively little effort. On the other hand at least 1/2 of the kids who won't get will be missing out due to disability or learning English or something that is out of their control. The other half will be kids who simply don't care, and missing out won't make a whit of difference to them.

It's sort of like saying that you're going to be giving awards for atheletic achievement, and then giving them to every child who walks around the track 3x. The only kids who wouldn't get it would be the kids who don't care enough to do it, the kids in wheelchairs and the kid who is having an asthma attack right at that moment. Then having an award ceremony and complaining that that kid in the wheelchair needs to learn that life isn't "fair".

I say, either have an award for kids who are truly talented or have truly gone above and beyond, or don't have an award. But having an award for 90%? Weird!

 

[Octoberbride03]

Sorry for the posts. This is the first time I've been on here. I really didn't really realize it was Disney until I got registered for it.

Ok, so exactly what were you looking for when you fond this thread but didn't realize you were registered for a "DISNEY" board?

 

[MrsPete]

This is in response to Magpie. As a matter of fact, that's the first time I have mentioned my students as "babies." And, you can keep your opinion to yourself about what I said. I've been teaching for 28 years, and I've seen those who go to honor roll ceremonies and don't get awards. It only makes them feel bad that they didn't get the awards or all the perks that come with them. So, I think I have enough experience to know what I'm talking about. Try being in the classroom for just one day. You'll see.

I have only a piddly 19 years' experience in the classroom, but I disagree.

Magpie, I will also say I know exactly what dyslexia is. I have taught those children for 28 years. You can't be stupid and be dyslexic.

Sure you can. You can be stupid and dyslexic. You can be stupid and ADHD. You can be stupid and learning disabled.

Or, you could be smart and dyslexic. You could be smart and have ADHD. You could be smart and learning disabled.

Equally important, you could be both stupid and dyslexic and unmotivated. Or you could be smart and dyslexic and unmotivated.

You get the idea. Kids aren't one thing or the other. They're a mismatch of a variety of abilities, personality traits, and conditions.

By the way,my school has 50 teachers. They expend 2 hours gathering data, creating and distributing honor roll certificates 4 times a year. Add it up. That's 400 man hours. If teachers get paid at at, say, $20/hour, that's $8000.

Now,that's the cost side for just one school. Multiply that by 50 other schools in the district, and that's $40,000.

Would somebody please give me the benefit side of this equation?

You're implying that figuring up honor roll information "costs" the school system an extra $8000. The teachers are on salary, so they're making what they're making regardless of whether they tally up the honor roll or not.

Regardless, they have to complete semester grades for all students -- that is a time-consuming task. They have to make up the report cards. Listing the students who made the best grades is a 10-minute job. In fact, a couple clicks of the computer will re-order the students by grade earned.

 

[manning]

...maybe that teachers consider bright, exceptional and completely "out-of-the-box" thinkers to be retarded?

Simple...don't let failure discourage you.

Very rarely, if at all, does anyone not fail at something. If Edison stopped after his first faiure he would not have had all those patents. He learned to pick himself up and try again. Something everyone should learn.

 

[sparklynails23]

I'm pretty sure the thread was originally about middle school students, not first and second graders. I don't think my kids got awards for their grades in the lower grades. When I was in school, we got free tickets to a major league baseball game for straight A's in middle school. It was the Cincinnati Reds in the 70s, when they had a great team, and you got more than one ticket.

 

[phorsenuf]

This is in response to Magpie. As a matter of fact, that's the first time I have mentioned my students as "babies." And, you can keep your opinion to yourself about what I said. I've been teaching for 28 years, and I've seen those who go to honor roll ceremonies and don't get awards. It only makes them feel bad that they didn't get the awards or all the perks that come with them. So, I think I have enough experience to know what I'm talking about. Try being in the classroom for just one day. You'll see.

Magpie, let me add this. These children have plenty of time to find out who are going to get all the awards and who are not. They will find that out soon enough. But, when they are in first and second grade, they don't understand. They all have their own abilities. Give some rewards to those children who are not on honor roll. Good conduct awards are important, too. Find out their talents and give awards for those. As a matter of fact, kids can have D and F in conduct and still get honor roll. Give me a break.

Keep the non-honor roll children in a classroom with another teacher so they don't have to be subjected to the embarrassment in front of the other kids. They have plenty of time for that.

Magpie, I will also say I know exactly what dyslexia is. I have taught those children for 28 years. You can't be stupid and be dyslexic.

Hmmm......looks like someone needs my axe more then me.

 

[Magpie]

Hmmm......looks like someone needs my axe more then me.

I was flattered, actually. Usually it's a lot more effort getting up someone's nose.