What I Should Have Told My Students in September

Welcome to 10th grade.

School may have been kind of easy in the past. You may have learned somewhat simple concepts and taken open-book tests.

Well, those days are over. High school is supposed to be hard. You will not perform well if you only learn in the 47 minutes of class time that has been allotted to you. In other words, YOU NEED TO STUDY.

Some of you will be able to get by with some paying attention and no studying. But most of you aren't that talented. (Sorry.) In order to learn and not just copy/regurgitate, you must review your notes on a regular basis. It goes without saying that you must study the night before a test or quiz.

If you don't get something, there are many good times to let me know. Why not raise your hand during class and tell me that you're lost? Why not come see me before school or after school or during your lunch period? Why not email me or call me? Whining minutes before a test that you haven't understood anything we've done in the last two weeks (when you have neither done your homework nor studied at all) is a really terrible strategy. You will not get much sympathy from me.

Also, please keep your mouths shut during a test/quiz. It's simply respectful to yourself and your classmates. I know you've all grown up with earphones plugged into your ears 24/7 and are used to a certain amount of background distraction. But music is one thing. Believe it or not, it's really hard to concentrate when the kid behind you is having a conversation with his neighbor. Or when someone else's music is blasting out of their headphones. So just be respectful. It'll help everyone in the short term AND long term.

And finally... If you stop fighting with me about following directions, you'll find that following directions is actually pretty easy. And if I give you time before a quiz to study, don't argue with me about how you can't possibly take the quiz because you were absent last Wednesday, and you forgot to study, and you don't know anything, and your hamster died, and you're hungry. Just shut up and study.

Thank you.