The first report cards are on their way. Tomorrow’s actually the last day that teachers are able to add marks to the student follow-up system. Being a mentor of a group of second years of which more than half of them came from one level lower, I was really curious of how things stand – marks-wise that is.
Overall I’m quite pleased. I am not so pleased, however, with their marks for Dutch language. My class consists of 22 pupils. Eight of them managed to get a below sufficient mark for that subject. I decided to take a closer look at their grades. I found out that the average mark is based on three separate marks, one of which is a mark for a book report. Some of the children obviously didn’t hand in their book report and thus obtained a 1.0 (the lowest possible score on a score from 1-10). With the other two marks it is nearly impossible to polish this up to a sufficient mark. Looking at the scheme, my students should actually have had two more marks this period. So I’m wondering what went wrong and why didn’t I know about it. I guess I’ll have to speak to their Dutch teacher tomorrow.
I also will have to start writing the mentor reports, which are personalized accounts of how I think the student is functioning at this level and in the classroom. Usually I have some standardized format in which I personalize certain details. This will be nearly impossible this year since I have so many students with different backgrounds. I’ve got my work cut out for me.
I’m also hoping for good news this week and I hope I will be able to share it soon. It seems that it is going to be a really busy second semester, and I’m looking forward to it!
