No Wonder They Fail

I took Thursday off. I was sick. I never take a sick day but this time I knew I had to see a doctor. I felt bad about taking the day off because my M&C's were going to take a test on Friday. I had given them a practice sheet on Wednesday but Thursday was the day we were going to go over it. Well, I got two frantic e-mails from kids in the class, worried because they needed some help with some of the problems. Friday I got greeted by kids begging me to postpone the test until Monday. I figured, what the heck. What difference does one more day make? Maybe they will actually listen and do better this time. Boy, was I wrong. More than half of them had no clue where the sheet was and only a handful of the ones that had the sheet had actually looked at any of the problems. When I went over it, a few still talked non-stop and did not pay any attention. I don't get it. I always liked math in school, but it didn't come easy to me. I think that is why I majored in math. It was a subject that I respected because of how difficult it was. I wish I had had teachers that took the time to make up practice sheets and really explain what was going on. Some of these kids are just too dumb to understand, no matter how slow I go, but that is not the case for most of them. If they would put the effort of working and paying attention into the effort they take to goof off, they would be a lot more successful.