Except now, I'm busy imagining Castiel with Barry White's voice (and Gabriel with Olivia Newton John's), so I'm going to go, ah, apply myself.

I need buffista teacher help. CJ just got his progress report grades and he went from a B to an F in History due to two assignments being marked as missing (2 out of 7 assignments - with 100% on 4 of them). CJ swears he turned them in but the teacher said she didn't have them. Apparently they were in class projects, so it isn't a paper he can just reprint and resubmit.

I keep trying to tell him it is his responsibility to work with the teacher and figure out how to get his grade back on track. He just gets frustrated and tells me it isn't his fault his teacher can't find those assignments. I wish I had something more constructive to suggest to him.

Suzi, I have a couple of follow up questions. Is there a particular reason that there are only 7 assignments? In how long of a period (4 weeks or thereabouts)? That's just me as curious.

If they were in class projects, how did the not being turned in correctly work? I know CJ is frustrated, but he should be reminded that if the teacher doesn't have the work, she cannot magically make up a grade. If the work is missing, is there a way she would consider accepting an alternate assignment on the same topic?

As a teacher if this happened once I'd probably grumble and then possibly excuse the assignment. The difficultly, though, is this has happened twice out of a small number of assignments. Is the issue with HOW the assignment gets turned in? Or just forgetfulness or confusion about when the assignment gets turned in?

Also, how long until the grades are finalized? And is it possible for CJ to bring his grade up in that time? And how could he go about doing that? He needs to have that discussion with the teacher directly, even if he thinks it's not his fault.

Well, was in in class those days? Check that out first of all.

Then, see what the assignments were, and whether CJ can do any extra credit assignments, after you ask if there's anyway the papers has been misfiled. I know in my massive piles of assignments, I did lose or misfile papers.

If not, then tell him his best option is NOT to get frustrated with the teacher -- that is counterproductive. Ask him to ask her/him if he has a history of not turning in classwork, and if not, if s/he could give him either the benefit of the doubt and look again, and if not joy, then to resubmit the assignments or an alternate assignment.

Tell him you know it's frustrating, but he is taking on enough adult resposibilties to know that shit happens, that things happen that aren't always fair, but that his good grade and his mature response to it are like keeping calm at a crisis, and that that is what is more important in the grand scheme of things than proving right or wrong.

And that a calm, mature "how can we work together to reach a solution?" is WAY more likely to get him slack with the teacher than "It's not fair! BITCH MOAN."

He's 15; it may work, it may not. But appeal to "Would you say "This isn't fair" in a crisis/rescue situation" or would you figure out how to deal?

It has been 6 weeks in this progress period. Most of his other classes have had more assignments, but for whatever reason, this class has had only 7. Parents have access to grades that have been loaded into the grading database. Some teachers are more prompt about entering grades than others. His grade in History looked great until the day before the end of the progress period when the teacher marked those two as missing with a zero grade.

He swears he remembers handing her both assignments. One is vocab related and the other was a "Viking Comparison". He hasn't missed school during the progress period, so that isn't an issue.

He does get stuck on this "It's not fair" and "It's not my fault". I have tried to tell him that it is still his responsibility. I have also encouraged him to show the teacher that he cares about his grade and wants to do what it takes to fix things.

I'm frustrated because he has never struggled with History before. English and ASL, yes (though ASL is improving), but not this. (Thank heavens he has finally got Algebra figured out).

And if CJ's school frustrations aren't enough, K-Bug is having boy issues and is having a rough night.

Where is my f*cking magic wand? Or a clue-by-four. Shit, I need both.

Aw, Suzi. I offered to cluestick Laura's boy tonight; Colorado is closer than Florida.

Hrm. But it's colder. Got a hot tub? I am a slut for hot tubs.

I said I found it ironic that an African American kid, who 170 years ago would have been denied any possibility of getting an education, was perfectly happy giving his up.

You are so my hero for calling out your students on things like this. Dang.

Just saw a 2 hour presentation on middle school options. That was a LOT of information to take in.

Reading a bit before bed turned into staying up all night to finish Mockingjay. Damn. I'm kind of broken right now.

Reading a bit before bed turned into staying up all night to finish Mockingjay. I'm kind of broken right now.

There really is no just reading a bit of Mockingjay or at least there wasn't for me.