Good morning,
I hope this email finds you well. This update is divided into three parts: Past Grades, Easy A, and Future Grades. The Future Grades section relates to an update in PGCPS grading policy that could prove VERY beneficial to a lot of students.
Past Grades:
First, let's get this out of the way: SchoolMax for all my classes was again updated by 4:55 PM yesterday. Some students had their averages go up, others ... did not.
A core component of Project 3 this week involved using art with permission. While some students did fantastic work, others chose to not respect the rights of other artists. Those who chose poorly have comments in Google Classroom and SchoolMax reflecting this. Some of those who did exceptionally well had their work shared with the rest of the Arts Team as well as Foulois Administration.
As this is a bulk email I will not be going into details for individual students. You are strongly encouraged to check SchoolMax and Google Classroom to see how things are progressing.
Easy A
I do not design the projects to be difficult. In fact, each project is assigned along with a video that goes over all the steps! These videos are hosted on my PGCPS provided YouTube account before embedding them in Google Classroom, which means that I am able to see the statistics for how many times the videos are being watched.
The best advice I can give for students who want to do well on the assignment is to watch me go over the directions.
Right now, most are not, and it's hurting their grades. I try to show the EASY way to get the work done in each video. Some students are doing more work in a way that results in a lower grade - a problem that could be solved by watching how to do it first.
Future Grades
In an update that was just shared with me yesterday, I learned that I will not be required to assign new projects for most of June. This means the last project I assign for 4th Quarter will likely be Project 7, which will be assigned on Monday, May 25th and be due on Friday, June 5th*
*(Subject to change as policies are updated and/or clarified, just like this change is due to a PGCPS policy being updated.)
Furthermore, June 9-16 are designated as days for students to make up work!
Now if I have all make-up work due on the 16th, I guarantee there are not enough hours in the day for me to assess all of it and submit my grades on time. Instead, I'm starting early and spreading things out to hopefully make it easier for all of us.
Next week, a Make-Up assignment for Project 1 will be posted to Google Classroom, with a due date of June 9th by 1:00 PM. ANY student unhappy with their current Project 1 grade can submit their revised work to that NEW assignment. I will begin grading them at 1:00 PM and have the results in SchoolMax that night.
(The 1:00 PM deadline is crucial, as I will need time to grade each day's Make-Up work and I can only stay up so late before I stop being coherent.)
The Make-Up for Project 2 will be due by June 10th, Project 3's Make-Up will be due June 11th, and so on. Each of these will be posted next week (for Projects 1-3) or shortly after the first attempt has been graded (for projects 4-7).
As I am not assigning work to be due over weekends, this means that Projects 6 and 7 will BOTH have their Make-Ups due on June 16th. This will still be much better than having all 7 Make-Up projects (not to mention work from other classes) due on the same day, and hopefully spreading them out like this will also encourage students to pace themselves.
And since I'm letting you know now, students who are not happy with their grades for Projects 1-3 have a head start!
If a student resubmits an assignment and their new grade is higher, that will replace the old grade with no penalties. If their new grade is lower, I will leave the higher grade in SchoolMax. Resubmitting work CANNOT make an average go down.
Students can also choose to not submit a Make-Up assignment without it making their average go down. (Many have earned a 30/30. It would be silly to require them to make that work up.)
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. If I know the answer, I will be happy to assist.
Hoping you and yours are safe and well,
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