Dear Student,
I realize that your life is complicated.
I know you have family commitments. I know your mom and dad fight or maybe they don't because you don't have one or either. I know you might live with grandma or big brother or foster mom and things can be busy. I know that even if you are fortunate enough to live with your biological parents who are happily married, they might be stressed and yell at you for no reason. They may have high expectations for you and expect everything to be done a certain way and it drives you crazy and you are simply trying to reach their goals for you.
Or maybe they don't push you. Maybe the adults in your life don't push you to succeed or excel. Maybe you do. Maybe you put so much pressure on yourself to succeed and accomplish, that when you forgot your homework, it was because you were up studying for a science test or memorizing 100 vocab words for English. Or maybe you're not pushed at all. Maybe you don't care too much except when your grade dips slightly below what is acceptable to you. Maybe you forgot because your packet was at Mom's house and you were at Dad's. Or maybe you forgot because you were up really late playing video games or studying or binge watching Netflix. Or maybe you simply didn't care to do it until you realized you'd get a zero.
I understand that you have friends pulling you every which way. I understand the biology of your hormones and your brain and how you are growing and learning. However there are some things I want you to understand.
My life is complicated. I have family that I take care of and want to visit. I want to visit my grandma and spend an afternoon playing Sorry with her. I have a niece who I love spending time with and who lives with me. We like to cook or go to movies together and I drive her to work and pick her up from college. And though I don't have parents to visit, sometimes I'm sad that they're dead and I need to take an hour or two for myself to think and remember.
I have many friends. I have three best friends that I've known since kindergarten who I like to see. One has two kids who are like another niece and nephew to me and I haven't seen them since before Christmas. Another friend just broke up with her boyfriend of five years and sometimes calls to talk because she's upset. Another friend is getting married and I'm her bridesmaid and have to view flowers with her or help her with her wedding plans.
I have professional commitments as well. Sometimes, I spend Saturdays or week day evenings with a group of teachers talking about writing and learning and how to do my job better. I blog about my teaching and attend workshops to improve as a teacher. I am coordinating a young writer's program for the summer and have emails that I have to respond to and people to call and things to organize. And I organize Freshman Orientation and the 8th Grade Visit which give me hundreds of details to work out.
And I dedicate hours of my time outside the classroom to you because I care. I deeply care about my students and my teaching. I struggle to balance my life and my responsibilities to friends and family with my responsibilities to you. And more often than not, my responsibilities to you win. Many nights I want to just lay down on the couch and watch TV or sleep because I feel an illness coming on but instead, I proofread your journals or make rough draft corrections on your projects. Or I take two hours to try and plan new games for us to play in class when it would be easier to photocopy a worksheet.
I could use my planning time in school to do these types of things but sometimes, I'm meeting with a guidance counselor about one of you because I'm worried. Or sometimes one of you comes in because you're struggling and want my help.
I want you to understand me as a human being as I try to understand you.
I am writing so that before you approach me about turning in an assignment past its deadline, you know where I'm coming from.
When I assign major projects or collect lengthy assignments, I plan my personal time accordingly. I tell friends that I'm unable to hang out because I will have a ton of grading. I make sure I've done my grocery shopping ahead and know the house won't get cleaned this weekend. I wake up and grade over breakfast and until lunch. Then I might watch a half hour of TV with a sandwich or take my niece to work or clean out the kitty litter. Then I grade more. I cook dinner and I grade. And then I clean up the kitchen and I go to bed. On Sunday, I might continue grading or I might then have to spend the afternoon planning my lessons and then the evening grading even more. That's a journal weekend for me. Typing comments that will be helpful for you and reading your entries in a way that I can provide good feedback takes hours.
On a day when I give a test or collect an essay, I might go home, eat a snack and grade all night long and fall into bed exhausted. I know you want to see your grades and I know you are checking School Tool and want to know as soon as you can. I want to know as soon as I can. I want to see how your learning is coming and if the changes I made to the assignment from last year were beneficial for you.
As you can see, I plan my personal time and my school planning time around the things I need to get done. So I hope you can now understand why I am so frustrated when you walk into my room and hand me an assignment that is past due. It feels disrespectful to my time when you couldn't plan your life around your work, as I plan my life around mine. I set aside hours of my time to grade and when you miss your chance to have your assignment graded when I planned to do that particular grading, it bothers me. It feels like an intrusion on my time that I carefully plan. It is disrespectful and frustrating.
I know you have busy lives, as I do. I know sometimes things happen that are out of your control. Sometimes you have plans to do something and it just doesn't happen. I understand that every now and then, something slips and you drop a ball that you meant to keep up in the air. But my frustration is often in the way you approach me. Sometimes you just walk up to me, hand something to me and just expect that I'll take it, even when I made it very clear when the deadline was.
Perhaps the next time you approach me with something late that you want to submit for credit after the deadline has passed, you will remember what I've said. And when you approach me, you can say "I do not want to disrespect you as a person or the time you put into my learning outside class, but something happened and I couldn't complete this. I would really appreciate it if you accepted this late, even if you take off half the points. I also understand that you have the right to say no and I will respect that."
And the next time you approach me with something late that you would like to submit for credit after the deadline has passed and you say that to me, I will remember that you are also a human being like I am. And that you may have had all the intentions of the world to take care of it or may have simply forgotten but that you are being respectful of me and giving me the option to say no. However because you have respected my humanity, I will also respect yours and take the assignment with a smile. I will take off late points but I will give your late assignment the same consideration I gave the ones submitted on time.
Thank you for your respect and your presence in my classroom. Please know that this is a favor that cannot be asked multiple times for every assignment, but every once in a while, let's recognize our humanity.
-Miss Clegg
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