The grades, oh my god, the grades.

While doing some mini-calculating and educated guesswork tonight with the trusty calculator, I see this could be the first time a class of mine has not a single A or B.  Yeesh.  If you're guessing it's a small class, you're right; we're down to 9 now from 17-18 in January.  If you're guessing that teaching that class has been like the Bataan death march, you're right.  If you're guessing most of these students are more passive than pillows, you're right.  It's amazing how lack of motivation can be caught like the common cold.

In this particular section, I started the semester with three repeat students; they all took me for this course last fall.  One withdrew in March, another failed due to excessive absence, and the third will almost certainly fail again and may have a lower final score than last fall.  This third guy was asking me today who he should take for the followup course this summer.  Instead of recommending some names, should I have said, "You need to worry about passing this one first"?

When I teach the college-success class this fall, I am by god going to spend some time with strategies for active learning--that is, taking an interest in your fate.  So many of these guys just drift around our halls and let school, i.e. life, happen to them--just like they did in high school.

And I worry, still, that I'm not active enough with some of these guys, especially the borderline or failing students, that I don't intervene as I should.  That's another post for another time.