Teacher Adventure Story

I teach a college English class.

Earlier this quarter, one of our teachers went out on medical leave for the remainder of the quarter, and myself and another teacher had to take over her four classes for the remaining three weeks of the quarter, in addition to our other duties.

This was admittedly a difficult transition for many of the students, as well as the two teachers involved. However, one student had a particularly difficult time with this transition.

All of these emails are an exchange between myself and this same student:

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• Wed, Nov 27 (day before Thanksgiving):

Dear Professor Guyton,

I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to express my concern about my current grades in your class. I’ve been completing my assignments and staying on top of the work, but I’m not sure why my grade looks this way, especially since Prof. ******* has been out.

I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions on what I can do to improve. Are there specific areas I should focus on, or additional resources you would recommend? If possible, I’d also like to schedule a time to meet with you to discuss my progress.

Thank you for your time and assistance. I am committed to doing my best in your class and look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

[Name redacted]

• Sat, Nov 30:

Hi [redacted], I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you on this. I've checked your grades and it looks like you are missing five assignments. To see which ones, please check the gradebook and look for any 0's. Blank assignments have not been graded yet and have no impact on your final score. The five zeroes are causing the problem. I do accept late work at 10 points off per week, and I won't count Thanksgiving week against you. You should be able to access all five assignments on Moodle [*our online grading program*]. If you can submit them, I will accept and grade them. If Moodle will not let you submit them, please feel free to email the assignments to me directly.

• Mon, Dec 2:

Dear Professor Guyton,

Thank you for your email and for taking the time to review my grades. I appreciate your willingness to accept late work, as well as the clarification on how the missing assignments are impacting my Grade.

I will review the gradebook today to identify the five assignments with zeroes and ensure they are submitted as soon as possible. If I encounter any issues with Moodle submissions, I will email the assignments directly to you.

Also, may I receive the work we completed on paper in class when I come to class tomorrow? Because I didn't receive those.

Thank you again for your understanding and support.

Best regards,

[Redacted]

• Mon, Dec 2 (from me):

Yes, you may - although the paper assignments are all on Moodle as well. A lot of students prefer to type their answers, though I'm happy to give you a paper copy in class if you prefer.

• Wed, Dec 4:

Dear Professor Guyton,

I hope you're doing well. I wanted to follow up regarding the two assignments I submitted yesterday. I’ve noticed that my grade hasn't updated yet and wanted to check in to confirm that both assignments were received successfully.

Please let me know if you need anything from my side to ensure they are properly graded.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Best regards,

[Redacted]

• Wed, Dec 4:

Hi [redacted], all of your assignments are graded in Moodle. If there's something I'm missing, please let me know. However, I've graded every assignment that I’ve seen from you.

• Thu, Dec 5:

[student emails her two missing assignments to me with no explanation. I respond with a receipt of acknowledgement]

• Wed, Dec 11 (2 days before the end of class):

Hello Mr. Guyton,

How are you?

I am writing to ask about my grade in your English class. I noticed that my grade hasn’t been updated yet. I submitted three assignments yesterday.

I was wondering if there are any opportunities to improve my grade, such as extra credit or missing assignments. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Redacted]

• Wed, Dec 11 (same day):

Hi [redacted], I'm grading five classes and doing them as quickly as I can. There are over 100 students that I am trying to grade at this time. I am sorry if it's delayed, but I promise, I am trying to get through them as quickly as I can.

I do understand your concerns about the missing grades, but my hope is to have most of the assignments updated by tomorrow night. See me before or after class tomorrow, and I can look through each of the assignments to see which ones you are definitely still missing.

• Fri, Dec 13 (last day of class – 12:59pm):

Dear Mr. Guyton,

I hope you are doing well. I am following up regarding my grades, as I noticed they still haven't been updated. Since it's Friday, I would like to know if there is an issue with the system or any delays in processing.

If there’s anything I can do to assist or provide additional information, please let me know. Thank you for your time and support.

Best regards,

[Redacted]

• Fri, Dec 13 (same day – 2:49pm):

Hi [redacted], I was up until 5am this morning grading. I have just finished teaching my last class for the day. I am heading home now to finish grading. I'll be at it all night tonight and tomorrow, but you should have most of your grades up by tonight and the rest up by tomorrow night.

Again, I am very sorry for the delay. There are a lot of students between the five classes, but I am working hard on getting all of these assignments graded.

• Fri, Dec 13 (same day – 7:13pm):

Dear Mr. Guyton,

I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to address a concern I noticed regarding my grade. The only update to my grade appears to be the bookwork assignment. As I mentioned before, I was never given a book for the entire term, and you kindly allowed me to use yours to complete the assignment. You also stated that points would not be deducted for this reason, yet I see that points were taken off for lateness, and my overall grade has dropped.

Additionally, there are still assignments I’ve submitted that have not been graded. I would appreciate it if you could review my work and ensure everything is accurately reflected in my grade.

Thank you for your time and understanding. Please let me know if you need any further information from me, thank you!

[Redacted]

• Fri, Dec 13 (same day – 7:22pm):

Hi [redacted], I do hear your concerns and I promise you, I am working hard on them. Since this morning, I have received over three dozen emails from students submitting late work. I am doing my absolute best to get the grades in and respond to emails in a timely manner. I have just completed your Annotated Bibliography and I have 5 more Annotated Bibliographies to go. Once I get those finished, I will grade the paper handout assignments, which tend to go much quicker. Once I finish those, I will begin working on the textbook assignments. Then, I will do the final essays. I am grading all 30 students in your class, plus 15-30 students in every other class. ALL of the grades are due by Sunday morning at 9am. I have never gotten my grades in late, and I give you my word that all of your grades will be in by Sunday morning the absolute latest. Some of them will be in by tonight, but I cannot promise that all will be in by tonight.

• Fri, Dec 13 (same day – 7:24pm):

Dear Mr. Guyton,

I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to follow up regarding my grade in your class. I have been consistently communicating and completing my assignments, yet there has not been any noticeable change in my grade.

I understand that you have multiple classes to manage, but I am in a critical position where I cannot afford to fail this class, as it is essential for my graduation. Over the past few weeks, I have reached out multiple times and sought guidance on what I can do to improve my grade. My performance was not at this level prior to the transition to a new teacher, and I’m doing my best to adapt and keep up.

Please let me know if there is anything specific I can do to address this issue or if we can schedule a time to discuss this further. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to improve my standing in the class.

Thank you for your time and understanding. I appreciate your support.

Best regards,

[Redacted]

• Fri, Dec 13 (same day – 7:33pm):

[Redacted], based on what I've seen, it is highly unlikely you will fail. I am being very lenient in my grading because of the complicated situation with Prof. ****** getting sick, and I will even be grading on a curve at the end.

I realize your score looks low at the moment, but it will jump up quite a bit once I get all of the assignments in. I cannot tell yet whether you will get an A, B, or a C, but if it makes you feel better, I can promise that failure is extremely unlikely. Again, what the passing grade will look like is hard for me to say. Based on what I've seen so far, it is probably going to be in the B range, but if the final paper is really strong, then there's still a chance for an A. If the final paper is not very strong, then it could dip down to a C. I cannot imagine it going below that.

I hope this gives you some confidence. I understand your frustration and your concern. Please try not to think about it until tomorrow night. Once I get through the last two annotated bibliographies, the paper assignments and textbook assignments tend to go very quickly.

Also, I will not be accepting late work after tonight, so the email interruptions should cut back significantly.

• Sat, Dec 14 (a day after all assignments are due):

[Student submits a late assignment]

• Sat, Dec 14 (Same day - 2pm):

All right [redacted], although this is very late, I will accept it, and yes, before you ask, I am still grading. I will hopefully be finished by midnight or 1am.

• Sat, Dec 14 (Same day – 6pm):

Dear Mr. Guyton,

I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to follow up regarding my grade for English. I noticed that my grade has not yet been updated, and I was wondering if there might be any updates or if there is anything further I need to do on my end.

I understand you have a busy schedule, but I would appreciate any information or clarification regarding this matter.

Thank you for your time and assistance. I look forward to your response.

Best regards,

[Redacted]

• Sat, Dec 14 (Same day – 6:03pm)

Hi [redacted] I've completely finished three of my classes. I am almost finished with yours. I should have your class finished by about midnight or 1am. Then, I will finish class #5 around 2 or 3am. I have done nothing but grade this entire day, as I promised you in my previous email.

• Sat, Dec 14 (Same day – 6:14pm):

Hi Professor Guyton,

I hope you're doing well. I want to start by apologizing for sending so many emails. I really appreciate all the work you're doing to grade everything. I just want to let you know that I am very serious about my grade in this class because it’s important for my graduation. I can’t afford to fail and I really need to pass with a good grade, which is why I’ve been emailing you a lot.

I hope everything goes smoothly with the grading, and I appreciate all your time and effort.

Thank you again!

Best,

[Redacted]

• Sun, Dec 15 at 2am (Grades have been submitted, and student has barely pulled off a C):

Dear Mr. Guyton,

I hope you are doing well. As I mentioned before, I never received a textbook for the class, which made it difficult to complete the assignments. I was only able to do one of the chapters because you kindly allowed me to use your copy at the time.

I wanted to ask what can be done to address the chapters I missed and the grades associated with them. Thank you for your understanding and for taking the time to help me address this issue. Please let me know how I should proceed.

Best regards,

[Redacted]

• Sun, Dec 15 at 2:40am (I was still up grading my final class):

Hi [redacted], I'll be honest. I assumed you were going to do all of the textbook assignments when you borrowed my book for five days. I was very surprised to see that you hadn't.

In any case, the grades are in now, and you do have a C in the class. As I mentioned - the final paper could bring you up or down, and I was a little disappointed with the paper. It was a research paper, but there was no research anywhere. No Works Cited page, no in-text citations. Also, there was a 750 word count, and your essay was only 450 words. You received a D on it, which lowered your overall score to a 67 - but as I mentioned, I do grade on a curve. The highest grade in the class was a 97, which meant that I was able to lift everyone's grade up by 3 points, and you ended up with a 70 in the class, which is a C. I know it's not what you were hoping for, but it is a passing grade, which is a good thing.

At this point, the missing textbook assignments would only bring you up to about a 74 or a 75, which is still a C.

If you have any specific questions on any of the assignments, I am happy to answer them.

Again, I am sorry that it took me so long to grade them, but there were a lot of students this semester, and I still have one more class to grade before I go to sleep tonight.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday break, and I hope the graduation goes really well for you.

• Sun, Dec 15 at 10am:

Hi Mr. Guyton,

Thank you for the update on my grade and for taking the time to explain everything. I wanted to share some clarification about the textbook assignments. When I borrowed the book, I wasn’t aware that I was expected to complete all of the assignments. When I asked about it, you had only mentioned one. Additionally, when Ms. ****** was here, she told some of us not to worry about certain assignments because she knew that not everyone had books at the time.

I’m confused about being penalized for something that I couldn’t control due to the limited availability of the books. I did my best with the resources I had and tried to complete what I thought was required.

I truly appreciate your hard work in grading and your willingness to answer questions. If there’s any way I can better understand where I went wrong or make up for this misunderstanding in the future, please let me know.

Thank you again, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday break!

Best regards,

[Redacted]

• Sun, Dec 15 at 10:37am:

[Redacted], I understand there was confusion between Prof. ***** being sick and myself taking over. However, when I took over, I tried to make absolutely clear what assignments were due every single week. I'm not sure if you looked through the Moodle page, but starting in Week 6 (when I officially took over), I very clearly laid out the assignments for every week:

1. Week 6: 11/19-11/21 / Due this week:
• Textbook Reading:
• Subject/Verb Agreement (Chapter 18), Verb Tense (Chapter 19), Pronouns (Chapter 20), Adjectives & Adverbs (Chapter 21): pp. 352-401
• Answer the Review Questions from all four Chapters.
• Warm-Ups:
• Argumentative Essay Worksheet Part I (Warm-Up)
• Argumentative Essay Worksheet Part II (Warm-Up)
• Final Draft of Illustration Essay
• All assignments this week are due Sunday, November 24 at 11:59pm.
2. Week 7: 12/2-12/6 / Due this week:
• Textbook Reading:
• Misplaced & Dangling Modifiers (Chapter 22), Coordination & Subordination (Chapter 23), Parallelism (Chapter 24), Sentence Variety (Chapter 25): pp. 402-436
• Answer the Review Questions from all four Chapters.
• Warm-Ups:
• Words with a Prefix
• Words Ending in ant, ent, ary, ery
• Quotation Assignment (Warm-Up)
• Annotated Bibliography for Argumentative Research Essay
• All assignments this week are due Sunday, December 10 at 11:59pm.
3. Week 8: 12/9-12/13 / Due this week:
• Textbook Reading:
• Narration (Chapter 6) & Illustration (Chapter 7): pp. 107-150
• Answer the Review Questions from both Chapters.
• Warm-Ups:
• Vowel Concerns - A
• Verbs Ending in -Ous
• Final Draft for Research Paper
• Any late or missing work
• All assignments this week are due Friday, December 13 at 11:59pm.

This is all right there on the Moodle page, including the textbook assignments.

I understand that you had difficulty getting the textbook, and I am sorry that happened. But I was willing to lend you my own textbook so you could get caught up. When you say that I “only mentioned one", I'm not sure what you mean, because the Moodle shell clearly listed three textbook assignments. (If I had been your teacher from day one, there would have been 8 textbook assignments - one for each week).

What I may have said in Week 7 was that you were only missing one textbook assignment at that time, which was true after Thanksgiving, but there were still two others scheduled.

It seems to me like you were not looking at the Moodle page, even though I went over it several times in class, and, every week, I had a student read out loud what was due that week.

I do not know where the miscommunication occurred, but I recognize that switching from one teacher to another can be confusing. I tried to eliminate as much confusion as I could. If there's anything else I could have done to make it more clear, please let me know.

I am sorry that things were challenging this semester. None of us expected Prof. ****** to get sick. I think we all did the best we possibly could under the circumstances.

• Sun, Dec 15 at 12:15pm:

Dear Professor Guyton,

Thank you for your response. I want to address some concerns regarding the communication this semester. I have made nothing but consistent efforts to email you, especially since before Thanksgiving break, to clarify what was required to improve my grade. However, when I asked for guidance, I was only told about the book assignments and was not informed that additional tasks needed to be completed.

I also feel there may have been conflicting instructions at times. For example, we were told not to worry about certain assignments, but later those tasks became part of what was expected. This has contributed to the confusion.

I’ve done everything in my power as a student to show that I care about my grade and see what I needed to do.

Sincerely,

[Redacted]

• Sun, Dec 15 at 12:45pm (from me):

I never once told you not to worry about certain assignments. I am not sure what Prof. ****** said or did not say, but I believe I was very clear - on Moodle and in the classroom - on all the assignments that I expected. From Week 6 forward, everything was laid out very clearly on the Moodle page and, every week, I picked one student to read the assignments out loud from the board so there would be no confusion. For any assignments given prior to Week 6, I was very lenient and accepted a lot of the work late because of the confusion over the transition.

I will say this - several times during the class sessions, I called out your name to ask you to read something from the board, and several times, you did not reply. One of your classmates often had to tap you to get your attention. Several times, I witnessed you pull something out of your ears which looked like earbuds. In my observation, it appeared that you were often not paying attention. I did not call you out on this. I did not try to embarrass you. My personal feeling is that you are not in elementary school. If you don't wish to pay attention, then I am not going to force you. However, I do not appreciate being told that I did not communicate well when it seemed very obvious to me that you were often not paying attention during class.

No, you were not the only student to wear earbuds in the classroom - I saw several students doing this - but you are the only student who is accusing me of not being clear. So, I will say this - if you don't wish to be confused in future classes, please don't wear earbuds in the classroom. Please try to give your teacher and classmates your full attention. If you are not willing to do that, then you must accept the likelihood that you will miss important information.

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The student has not responded since.

However, my student survey responses were all very positive except for one student (completely anonymous) who tore me to shreds and made very mean-spirited comments on the student evaluation form. I can only guess which student that was.

#howdoireachthesekeeeds

and

#doievenwanttoatthispoint