Small Victories...

Just did my grades. What I thought was going to be a depressing task, turned out to be not so bad.

Last semester, 2/3 of my regular Geometry class got D's and F's. This semester, slightly less than 1/2 are getting D's and F's, and quite a few of those D+'s are just on the brink of breaking the C- mark. Granted, most of this improvement is due to the fact that many people who got D's and F's last semester ended up dropping my class at the semester.

But there are a few cases where students who are just trying really hard have significantly improved their grades.

One girl tried sooooo hard last semester and still ended up with an F. But this semester, she has a C!!! Coming from the high school I came from, I never thought I'd be so happy about a C, but this girl has worked her butt of for it and I'm really excited for her. She had to take Algebra multiple times and barely passed it each time. When she came into my class, she said she was just hoping to get credits for the class (i.e. D-) and that her parents were fine with that because they all knew she's "no good at math." She has struggled a lot, but she's earning all 77% of her C.

A boy in my Algebra class (who should have been in block, but tested out I think by luck), was probably completely lost first semester. He did very little, understood even less, and got a 30% first semester. This semester, he's been working his butt off. I think he has the highest homework completion rate in his class (98%). At the beginning of the quarter, he was still getting an F (because he really struggles with the material). He asked me why he was still getting an F even though he was doing all the work. I didn't know what to tell him.

At the quarter, he now has a 61.85%. Again, I never thought I'd give a hallelujah for a D-, but if you think about it, he jumped from a 30% last semester to a 61.85% this semester (and the material second semester builds on stuff from first semester, so it's more complex). That's about a 30% increase and now he has a chance of getting credit for the class! He seriously earned it. I just hope he realizes that his hard work IS paying off. Going to have a pep talk with him tomorrow so he can keep up the good work for the last quarter.

Holding on to hope...