Early thoughts on zeros

A zero is not punitive; it is a reminder. Students whose grade is not affected by an uncompleted assessment will be far more likely to remember if they have a horrific average because of it. This holds ESPECIALLY true for students who care about learning - they're the ones who'll be so into learning something NEW that they won't remember to prove they learned last week's stuff!

I do accept late work without additional penalty, though. I figure having to do the late work in addition to the current work is a natural, reasonable consequence - with the side bonus that when the student DOES bust his (or her) butt and get caught up, then later on, I can push them to do more and better work, and if they gripe, I get to say, "Look, I know this is tough, but I've seen what you can do when you put your mind to it!"

>:D Heh heh heh.

I may, however, convert the zeros to fifties before the grades get locked.