12+Presenting+Information

Presenting Information:

Four years ago I was in a teaching position where it was presented to the staff by the school leaders that we would no longer be giving 0's in the grade book. The lowest grade that could be given is a 50. The teaching staff almost revolted against the leadership of the district. For six months we heard presentation after presentation how this would help students, but the teachers could not get past the part where a student who turned nothing in would get 50 points instead of 0. I don't know how it was resolved because I left the district in the middle of the grading fight. After I left I heard a presentation about that same topic where the presented said there is a 10 point difference between an A and a B and a C and a D (90, 80, 70, 60), but a 50 point difference for an F (59-0). This really made a great point. I thought back and have remembered that if the grading idea would have been presented differently my previous staff may have accepted the idea instead of fighting against it.

What a great point. My school is currently working to change the grading system and I know that the teachers are very nervous as to how this will work. In the past we have always gotten our infomation presented to us through our principal who tends to have a hard time giving us the information in a clearly stated way. I can just see what will happen if he is the one who presents the changes, it's not going to be good, the teachers are going to flip out. There are a few teachers in our building who are able to present, regarless of the content, and teachers respond in a respectful manner. I think that respect is a big piece of presenting information as well. If you don't respect your presenter, the information isn't going to be taken the same way.