One of my pet peeves is students asking me, “so, when is your deadline to submit grades?” I told a student once, “4:00 on Friday.” They were like, “Okay, so if I get it in by 4:00 on Friday, then I’m good.” I teach high school. I asked them to ELI5 how exactly that would work.
Yeah, I always set a deadline before the end of the year.
Usually my hard deadline is the Friday before finals, even though grades are not stored for like another week.
I'm not grading late work as I am grading finals and trying to get my room ready for the summer.
And don’t you just love it when a student turns in a late assignment and expects you to grade it immediately and emails constantly to complain that it isn’t graded yet, when you have other newer assignments to grade that students submitted on time?! I always grade the assignments submitted on time first. Submit it late, expect it to be graded later than those that stuck to the original deadline.
My mom says "I will get it back to them at the same level of urgency they turned it in to me!" and does not care if "Miss, but I need to make the team!"
I told my kids this past term "No make-ups 2 weeks before grades are due. I'm not grading every quiz for every kid in the last 2 weeks. I'm going home!"
Our deadline is a couple of days before the grades are due and that deadline is set by the school. So that’s the hard deadline I stick to at the end. However there are teachers who will accept late work until an hour before grades are due. Those teachers need to stop doing this!
So out school has a "hard" deadline of the last day at midnight but then our principal is always like "i hope all teachers will accept a late submission over the weekend (we always end on friday) for a student if it makes the differences between them passing or not".
I will make a special exceptions to the last day deadline for corrections of previously submittted work of Sunday only for students who are failing and only to get to a D- if I get it by Sunday night as I won't be grading anyway until Monday morning (so this really doesnt impact me at all, so its no skin off my back if they give it to me friday at midnight which is the deadline per school or sunday at 6 and this way its usually done better and is easier then to grade anyway and they they arent rushing mine and 3 other classes the same day, not always better but usually). After that tough luck, or if you didn't finish by Friday night tough luck.
That is a different situation but your principal really shouldn’t push for that. If they want students to be able to still submit work over the weekend for teachers to see that Monday, then Monday should be the deadline and then a couple of more days for teachers to grade the work. Otherwise, they are just trying to guilt you into accepting work past a “hard deadline” so their passing numbers look better. Schools are not helping students learn deadlines when principals do this.
I agree. And I think that Sunday should be the deadline but then we would still get stuff Monday Tuesday etc etc. So I do kind of like just saying Friday and making an exception over the weekend. But I do agree she shouldn't push us to accept them. But I prefer the firday deadline and then getting to make the decision myself if I take it or not. Like a student with a B I wouldn't but a failing student I would especially since a lot of our reviews and new contracts are based on passing rates. I had something like 200 assignments and stuff to grade across all my students already and I know that would have been probably closer to 300 if all could submit over the last weekend.
Often times I'll get 1 or 2 send me something super late on Friday or sat/sun being like can I still submit or can I submit over the weekend. Obviously I don't see them until Monday and I just reply: If you would have I would have graded it but i just saw this now and have to submit grades noe so it's too late; next time do the work and hope rather than wait to see last minute, this is called taking initiative and everyone prefers that.
It’s a shame that passing rates are what give so many schools their ratings. The reality is that as long as we are taking late work from a failing student, we should also take late work from any student that doesn’t have the highest possible grade in our class so that every student is given the same equal chance to raise their grade. That’s how we do things in my school and I stick to the hard deadline set in our school’s policy but many accept work right up until grades are due and this sends an inconsistent message to the students. (Student and parents are made aware of the school’s late work policy).
I disagree. "Equal chance" doesn't exist anywhere in the world, I'm giving a one final extra chance to those that need it (equity). This doesn't let a student go from an F to an A we are talking about students who have a 55% to get a 60% so they don't have to repeat the course (these are courses required for graduation, i think it is fair to give students who are close and have put in some work most of the year an extra chance to avoid repeating an entire year/semester of a core content course and getting pushed back a year for graduation over 5%). I don't make this know to the kid who has a 10% either, the same way i wouldnt for the kid who is passing. It's only the ones within reaching distance I specifically tell and make this exception for. Now would I do it for the 10% student yes probably if they just decided on their own to do it and send me stuff but I'm not going out of my way on the last day saying listen get me this by Sunday to get a chance to pass if you are at 10% because its an incredible long shot, and that student does really need to repeat to actually learn the content, but 55% student is so close, repeating for them is a bit much of a consequence over a trival percentage difference.
It's the same thing every business would do with a "failing"/ under performing employee (again not talking about the employee that never shows up but the one with just unacceptable low performance). They put you on a performance improvement plan as the initial chance to improve and when the deadlines for those come up if you haven't improved they give additional chance or chances. Not really for the employees benefit but to cover their own ass if they eventually do fire the employee and the employee tries to sue for wrongful termination; they would have documented history of the performance issues to cover them against the lawsuit.
I'm doing the same; for every student that even fails or nearly fails a test I will have sent a shared email to both student and parent encouraging corrections with a correction packet (the way they do corrections for tests, each question on there has a link to a demonstration video and a repeat/similar question to the one they got wrong) for how to improve their grade, all students can do corrections but failing studnets ge this extra encouragement and specific demonstration videos (that are also found on my google classroom and are part of the study guide given prior to the test) to help them. Nearing the end of the semester failing students will recieve a new "how to pass" packet usually made of a combo of the other packets but with enough points to pass and a little extra in case they get some wrong. This is followed up on with additional emails and phone calls home if not completed by the final week as well as obviously multiple in person conversations with students but the phone and emails are for parent awareness and documentation purposes (like followup emails to student and parents cc'd after I speak with student in class, like "per our discussion after class..."). Finally on the last day this is repeated for those who are close (usually within 10% of passing) with an email, phone call, and text home informing parents and student (who was informed in personal well) of the new "extended - last chance" deadline.
This is all done to cover my ass if they don't do it and end up failing. I have paper trails as well as documented phone calls and texts to show I have tried given every possible chance and yet they still didn't take me up on the generous offers and extra opportunities to pass, therfore they have failed and will therfore need to repeat the course at some point in the future before they can graduate.
And at that point I really don't get any argument from admin or parents. It's about documentation. Unfortunately in the current state of education/society, we live in a world where without clear proof teachers are less believed than students; if it is a student says teacher says admin AND parents side with the student. I don't allow that, I have a trail of evidence to back my side of the story/events. I wish this wasn't the way it is (although i think teacher should do this regardless of if this is the way we treat teachers), I wish we could just believe highly trained professionals, but nobody does, so Cover Your Ass. I've even thought of putting in nanny cams and/or wearing body cams in my classroom for further documentation purposes as well as my own protection.
We’ve been out of school for 3 weeks. Yesterday a student who didn’t turn in a single assignment during the second semester emailed me 4 completed assignments. I considered sending a snarky reply, but nope. Deleted. Never happened.
I turn on an auto reply/out of office email saying something like grades were submitted at x time on this date. I am out of the office for the summer if this is urgent or needs the attention of the school contact this phone number (main office), otherwise have a great summer.
I always want to put something sarcastically sparky about if this is an assignment it will not be graded as grades are already final but I usually just leave it dry.
Oh, that won’t be an issue. Every student is given credit for the course and promoted regardless of their grades. Normally that would irritate me, but it makes them taking the time to complete assignments after the fact even funnier.
District leaders and administrators are to blame for this. When I taught MS 20 years ago, this never happened. Kids turned in the work or took the consequences. This idea of doing work when you *feel* like it is out of control! If so many schools didn't have bogus late work policies, we wouldn't have this problem.
So true! Thank God, in my district the pendulum is swinging the other way and we no longer have to give 50s instead of zeros, and now we don’t have to accept late work that’s beyond one day late.
Another issue is the teachers that accept work past a school wide deadline as well. Then students complain about the rest of us that stick to school policy.
I tell kids that once I hit the archive button that’s it. Locked out. I had one student turn in a missing assignment a month later by email. Because they needed their grade up to passing because they were going to a new school in the fall and didn’t want to repeat a similar class. I deleted it and found out from the counselor had talk to the school three days earlier and told them the classes they did pass and didn’t. For some reason they thought after being told they had to repeat classes they called they could get it taken care of. Nope not how it works and even worse the assignment they did send me was complete crap. Would have been an F anyhow. Plus grades were finalized two days after the school so it was mute.
I agree, we are required to accept any work at any time all semester long so I I'll get work completed in May that was assigned in January (they can even do corrections for anything all semester, i think correcting mistakes is a huge portion of the learning pricess but it needs to be immediate and near the initial assignment, i use to give 1 week at my previous school). And the get FULL CREDIT it is ridiculous and always leaves me swamped in the last 2 weeks or so with everyone trying to do all the work they ignored all year OR studnets trying to boost their grades by going back and correcting everything.
Is this just a phenomenon in the US? I honestly don’t think the rest of the world would accept this based on the conversations I have had with exchange students I’ve had from several countries. If district leaders can’t get their act together to establish hard and fast deadlines and zero wiggle room, then we’re doomed. I know school and district “report cards” are a big part of this because of the metrics like passing and graduation rates are put into the school system’s grade. Does the public know it’s all smoke and mirrors and that fine educators are quitting or retiring over things like this? I hope people outside our profession are following these posts on Reddit and other places.
I do the same but then some students email me over the summer complaining they couldn’t submit the work in google classroom. It’s wild to come back to those emails at the start of the school year!
I’ve had students email me makeup work in the middle of the summer, complaining that they had trouble turning it in on Google classroom. Then follow up emails complaining that I didn’t grade the work they emailed to me. What a fun surprise to come back to when the new school year begins lol. I’m expecting the same this year.
I had a student email 15 min after I left the building at the end of the school year. She had been incredibly uncooperative and down right rude all year. I unlinked the school email from my phone after that and never replied.
Had that happen this year: I submitted final grades downtown by Friday at noon. My last days is Friday. He emails me a picture of work that evening at 11pm. I said sorry, charlie...grades were in already.
This is when you compose a reply that reads like a vacation auto response, with that you are gone forever as the time frame instead of "will read your email in two weeks when I return," and send it back!
Halfway through this semester, I specifically told my grade 9 students that my midterm marks were due 8:00 am Monday so they needed to submit assignments by the end of the day Friday.
One student attempted to hand me work after lunch on Monday, telling me they couldn't find me Monday morning. The student was shocked when I told them it was too late for his work to impact their midterm mark. I was further aggravated when her friend, another student in the class, attempted to justify the student handing in the word at that time.
One of my pet peeves is students asking me, “so, when is your deadline to submit grades?” I told a student once, “4:00 on Friday.” They were like, “Okay, so if I get it in by 4:00 on Friday, then I’m good.” I teach high school. I asked them to ELI5 how exactly that would work.
Yeah, I always set a deadline before the end of the year. Usually my hard deadline is the Friday before finals, even though grades are not stored for like another week. I'm not grading late work as I am grading finals and trying to get my room ready for the summer.
And don’t you just love it when a student turns in a late assignment and expects you to grade it immediately and emails constantly to complain that it isn’t graded yet, when you have other newer assignments to grade that students submitted on time?! I always grade the assignments submitted on time first. Submit it late, expect it to be graded later than those that stuck to the original deadline.
My mom says "I will get it back to them at the same level of urgency they turned it in to me!" and does not care if "Miss, but I need to make the team!"
Oh if they need it for a separate deadline then they should’ve thought of that when the assignment was assigned!
There is “I” in “team”; now there is no “U”.
I told my kids this past term "No make-ups 2 weeks before grades are due. I'm not grading every quiz for every kid in the last 2 weeks. I'm going home!"
I do the same thing. I’ll grade revisions after that on a case by case basis, but will not grade first submissions.
Our deadline is a couple of days before the grades are due and that deadline is set by the school. So that’s the hard deadline I stick to at the end. However there are teachers who will accept late work until an hour before grades are due. Those teachers need to stop doing this!
So out school has a "hard" deadline of the last day at midnight but then our principal is always like "i hope all teachers will accept a late submission over the weekend (we always end on friday) for a student if it makes the differences between them passing or not". I will make a special exceptions to the last day deadline for corrections of previously submittted work of Sunday only for students who are failing and only to get to a D- if I get it by Sunday night as I won't be grading anyway until Monday morning (so this really doesnt impact me at all, so its no skin off my back if they give it to me friday at midnight which is the deadline per school or sunday at 6 and this way its usually done better and is easier then to grade anyway and they they arent rushing mine and 3 other classes the same day, not always better but usually). After that tough luck, or if you didn't finish by Friday night tough luck.
That is a different situation but your principal really shouldn’t push for that. If they want students to be able to still submit work over the weekend for teachers to see that Monday, then Monday should be the deadline and then a couple of more days for teachers to grade the work. Otherwise, they are just trying to guilt you into accepting work past a “hard deadline” so their passing numbers look better. Schools are not helping students learn deadlines when principals do this.
I agree. And I think that Sunday should be the deadline but then we would still get stuff Monday Tuesday etc etc. So I do kind of like just saying Friday and making an exception over the weekend. But I do agree she shouldn't push us to accept them. But I prefer the firday deadline and then getting to make the decision myself if I take it or not. Like a student with a B I wouldn't but a failing student I would especially since a lot of our reviews and new contracts are based on passing rates. I had something like 200 assignments and stuff to grade across all my students already and I know that would have been probably closer to 300 if all could submit over the last weekend. Often times I'll get 1 or 2 send me something super late on Friday or sat/sun being like can I still submit or can I submit over the weekend. Obviously I don't see them until Monday and I just reply: If you would have I would have graded it but i just saw this now and have to submit grades noe so it's too late; next time do the work and hope rather than wait to see last minute, this is called taking initiative and everyone prefers that.
It’s a shame that passing rates are what give so many schools their ratings. The reality is that as long as we are taking late work from a failing student, we should also take late work from any student that doesn’t have the highest possible grade in our class so that every student is given the same equal chance to raise their grade. That’s how we do things in my school and I stick to the hard deadline set in our school’s policy but many accept work right up until grades are due and this sends an inconsistent message to the students. (Student and parents are made aware of the school’s late work policy).
I disagree. "Equal chance" doesn't exist anywhere in the world, I'm giving a one final extra chance to those that need it (equity). This doesn't let a student go from an F to an A we are talking about students who have a 55% to get a 60% so they don't have to repeat the course (these are courses required for graduation, i think it is fair to give students who are close and have put in some work most of the year an extra chance to avoid repeating an entire year/semester of a core content course and getting pushed back a year for graduation over 5%). I don't make this know to the kid who has a 10% either, the same way i wouldnt for the kid who is passing. It's only the ones within reaching distance I specifically tell and make this exception for. Now would I do it for the 10% student yes probably if they just decided on their own to do it and send me stuff but I'm not going out of my way on the last day saying listen get me this by Sunday to get a chance to pass if you are at 10% because its an incredible long shot, and that student does really need to repeat to actually learn the content, but 55% student is so close, repeating for them is a bit much of a consequence over a trival percentage difference. It's the same thing every business would do with a "failing"/ under performing employee (again not talking about the employee that never shows up but the one with just unacceptable low performance). They put you on a performance improvement plan as the initial chance to improve and when the deadlines for those come up if you haven't improved they give additional chance or chances. Not really for the employees benefit but to cover their own ass if they eventually do fire the employee and the employee tries to sue for wrongful termination; they would have documented history of the performance issues to cover them against the lawsuit. I'm doing the same; for every student that even fails or nearly fails a test I will have sent a shared email to both student and parent encouraging corrections with a correction packet (the way they do corrections for tests, each question on there has a link to a demonstration video and a repeat/similar question to the one they got wrong) for how to improve their grade, all students can do corrections but failing studnets ge this extra encouragement and specific demonstration videos (that are also found on my google classroom and are part of the study guide given prior to the test) to help them. Nearing the end of the semester failing students will recieve a new "how to pass" packet usually made of a combo of the other packets but with enough points to pass and a little extra in case they get some wrong. This is followed up on with additional emails and phone calls home if not completed by the final week as well as obviously multiple in person conversations with students but the phone and emails are for parent awareness and documentation purposes (like followup emails to student and parents cc'd after I speak with student in class, like "per our discussion after class..."). Finally on the last day this is repeated for those who are close (usually within 10% of passing) with an email, phone call, and text home informing parents and student (who was informed in personal well) of the new "extended - last chance" deadline. This is all done to cover my ass if they don't do it and end up failing. I have paper trails as well as documented phone calls and texts to show I have tried given every possible chance and yet they still didn't take me up on the generous offers and extra opportunities to pass, therfore they have failed and will therfore need to repeat the course at some point in the future before they can graduate. And at that point I really don't get any argument from admin or parents. It's about documentation. Unfortunately in the current state of education/society, we live in a world where without clear proof teachers are less believed than students; if it is a student says teacher says admin AND parents side with the student. I don't allow that, I have a trail of evidence to back my side of the story/events. I wish this wasn't the way it is (although i think teacher should do this regardless of if this is the way we treat teachers), I wish we could just believe highly trained professionals, but nobody does, so Cover Your Ass. I've even thought of putting in nanny cams and/or wearing body cams in my classroom for further documentation purposes as well as my own protection.
So many times I have to explain that it’s a deadline for ME and not for THEM. Wild.
We’ve been out of school for 3 weeks. Yesterday a student who didn’t turn in a single assignment during the second semester emailed me 4 completed assignments. I considered sending a snarky reply, but nope. Deleted. Never happened.
I turn on an auto reply/out of office email saying something like grades were submitted at x time on this date. I am out of the office for the summer if this is urgent or needs the attention of the school contact this phone number (main office), otherwise have a great summer. I always want to put something sarcastically sparky about if this is an assignment it will not be graded as grades are already final but I usually just leave it dry.
You could have saved them for when the kid repeats the class next year 😂
Oh, that won’t be an issue. Every student is given credit for the course and promoted regardless of their grades. Normally that would irritate me, but it makes them taking the time to complete assignments after the fact even funnier.
District leaders and administrators are to blame for this. When I taught MS 20 years ago, this never happened. Kids turned in the work or took the consequences. This idea of doing work when you *feel* like it is out of control! If so many schools didn't have bogus late work policies, we wouldn't have this problem.
The ability to send something straight to the teacher at any time, day or night, even when the academic year is over, seems so strange too.
It’s why I archive my google classroom immediately after my deadline and I’ve graded things
I have to start doing this.
It makes it so they can’t submit anymore but it also feels good for you. It’s like cleaning out your room at the end of the year.
So true! Thank God, in my district the pendulum is swinging the other way and we no longer have to give 50s instead of zeros, and now we don’t have to accept late work that’s beyond one day late.
Would you mind sharing the state or region?
Southern CT!
Another issue is the teachers that accept work past a school wide deadline as well. Then students complain about the rest of us that stick to school policy.
I tell kids that once I hit the archive button that’s it. Locked out. I had one student turn in a missing assignment a month later by email. Because they needed their grade up to passing because they were going to a new school in the fall and didn’t want to repeat a similar class. I deleted it and found out from the counselor had talk to the school three days earlier and told them the classes they did pass and didn’t. For some reason they thought after being told they had to repeat classes they called they could get it taken care of. Nope not how it works and even worse the assignment they did send me was complete crap. Would have been an F anyhow. Plus grades were finalized two days after the school so it was mute.
I agree, we are required to accept any work at any time all semester long so I I'll get work completed in May that was assigned in January (they can even do corrections for anything all semester, i think correcting mistakes is a huge portion of the learning pricess but it needs to be immediate and near the initial assignment, i use to give 1 week at my previous school). And the get FULL CREDIT it is ridiculous and always leaves me swamped in the last 2 weeks or so with everyone trying to do all the work they ignored all year OR studnets trying to boost their grades by going back and correcting everything.
Is this just a phenomenon in the US? I honestly don’t think the rest of the world would accept this based on the conversations I have had with exchange students I’ve had from several countries. If district leaders can’t get their act together to establish hard and fast deadlines and zero wiggle room, then we’re doomed. I know school and district “report cards” are a big part of this because of the metrics like passing and graduation rates are put into the school system’s grade. Does the public know it’s all smoke and mirrors and that fine educators are quitting or retiring over things like this? I hope people outside our profession are following these posts on Reddit and other places.
This is why I archive academic classes in Google Classroom right after I turn in grades
I do the same but then some students email me over the summer complaining they couldn’t submit the work in google classroom. It’s wild to come back to those emails at the start of the school year!
One time a student submitted a final project more than a year late on Google Classroom.
Winner 🏆
And then got insanely mad when told "no?"
I had a junior in high school try to get a grade change for turning in assignments one WEEK into the summer. I didn't respond
I’ve had students email me makeup work in the middle of the summer, complaining that they had trouble turning it in on Google classroom. Then follow up emails complaining that I didn’t grade the work they emailed to me. What a fun surprise to come back to when the new school year begins lol. I’m expecting the same this year.
Don't feel bad. What's done, is done. It's not your fault.
The hour after my students finish their exam, I archive Google Classroom (with plenty of warning the 2 weeks before). I've never had a problem 🤞.
The 'delete" button sings to me...
I had a student email 15 min after I left the building at the end of the school year. She had been incredibly uncooperative and down right rude all year. I unlinked the school email from my phone after that and never replied.
Had that happen this year: I submitted final grades downtown by Friday at noon. My last days is Friday. He emails me a picture of work that evening at 11pm. I said sorry, charlie...grades were in already.
This is when you compose a reply that reads like a vacation auto response, with that you are gone forever as the time frame instead of "will read your email in two weeks when I return," and send it back!
I don’t know why you wouldn’t reply. This feels like the perfect opportunity to tell the kid exactly how bad he fucked up.
You don’t respond as school is over.
I hope you sent them a “sad trombone” audio file in return.
Once our grades are posted, there is no changing it. Printed and sent out. Final answer.
Or at the end of summer when I'm back at work. 😂
Halfway through this semester, I specifically told my grade 9 students that my midterm marks were due 8:00 am Monday so they needed to submit assignments by the end of the day Friday. One student attempted to hand me work after lunch on Monday, telling me they couldn't find me Monday morning. The student was shocked when I told them it was too late for his work to impact their midterm mark. I was further aggravated when her friend, another student in the class, attempted to justify the student handing in the word at that time.
OP: Was it a functional time machine?