The Dangers of Unsolicited Advice- Subbing April 28th

Today I subbed for an Industrial technology teacher. These are not my favorite classes to sub for. Usually we show movies, or just baby sit the students as they work on something I can’t even begin to answer any of their questions over. Today was the first time a teacher wanted me to watch the students while they were in the shop. They were not allowed to cut anything, just sand and glue, but they were at least able to do something productive. For the most part the students got to work on their projects, but there was one student who was trying to take shortcuts on the project. Another student was trying to help him, and tell him what he needed to do to do the project correctly, but the first student just wanted to get the project done; he didn’t care how well he did the project, he just wanted to get a c. Not only was he doing it incorrectly, he was making it harder on himself. Why is it students will settle for a “c?” This student was offered help and he refused it. He just wanted to do the minimal work he needed to do to get the grade he was okay with. What can we do to change this mentality? I think we need to change the grading system. We need to remove that c barrier so students don’t have something to fall back on.