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Answers From The Teacher My daughter and I were both surprised by some low grades on her report card. When I called the teacher to discuss the low grades, she said that they were caused by missing assignments, even though all the other grades were passing. A zero was averaged in and that’s what lowered the grade. It doesn’t seem very fair that one or two missing grades should lower the quarter grade so much. Do the math yourself with your daughter to see how much a zero lowers average for the quarter. If you add up five passing grades, then divide by five, you will get a passing grade. But now try it with four passing grades and one zero. Add the four passing grades, but you still divide by five because there were five assignments. The numbers don’t lie. It would be very difficult for a teacher to notify every parent of a missing assignment, but I’m betting the teacher mentioned the situation to your daughter once or twice. Work out a system with your daughter so that she’s keeping up with the work and keeping you informed of her grades. Once she understands how much a zero hurts her grade, perhaps she’ll do all the assignments required. Also, don’t just ask if your daughter’s homework is done. Make it a practice to look it over, not only to see that it’s finished, but also to see that it’s done well. How can I make sure my son wears his glasses at school? He’s had them a few weeks, and his teacher just mentioned to me that she didn’t know that he even had them. Let me guess. Your son is in middle school. Just because your son is wearing glasses when he leaves the house in the morning doesn’t mean he’s wearing glasses at school. A note to the teacher explaining when the glasses should be worn at school will allow her to remind your son that he should be wearing them. Some students need glasses during most of the day, but prefer to take them off during physical education or recess. She may need to remind him to put them on if he takes them off during the day. If you think he’s sensitive about wearing them, and I’m guessing that he is, then you may suggest that the teacher whisper the reminder in his ear. That way the whole class won’t stop what they’re doing to watch him as he puts on the glasses. They won’t do that anyway, but he may feel that’s what’s happening. Some cooperation on his part will be necessary because the teacher can’t whisper the reminder in his ears forever, and, since you probably can’t follow him around all day, he’s going to have to do his part. Call the teacher in a few weeks to see how the situation is going. Keep the lines of communication open between you and the teacher. Once he gets over the initial embarrassment, he’ll probably prefer to see the board or the overhead clearly and he’ll wear the glasses. You might also encourage him by telling him that people are noticing his glasses because they’re new and different. But surely he’s not the only one in his class with glasses, and in a day or two, kids who might tease him will forget about his situation when something else comes along. Send questions to: Answers from the Teacher, P.O. Box 54, South Egre-mont, MA 01258. Questions may also be emailed to ateacher@bcn.net.
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