A Conversation With Mr. Tonk and Your Favorite Excuses
- I forgot it. I left it (at my house, at my friend’s house, in Mr(s)_______’s class, in the car, at the grocery store, etc).
Too bad for you. I don’t remember – why did you say this was my problem?
- I didn’t know there was an assignment. I didn’t hear you give an assignment.
Take some responsibility for your academic success. I announced it, wrote it on the weekly classroom calendar, and published it on MrTonk.com. If I gave you an impromptu assignment, I also wrote it on the whiteboard and announced it and you simply weren’t listening. I ALSO told you that if you are absent, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and make it up.
- A) My computer crashed. B) I opened it and it wasn’t there. C) I emailed it to you; didn’t you get it? D) But I saved it to this computer here in the classroom!
A) Sorry about your computer. Learn to save periodically and back things up to a disk. If there truly is something serious, bring a note from your parents. However, please see the sample of student writing on the back of this paper.
B) Hmmm. Learn to save properly. Also, be sure you are opening MS Word documents (what you create in class) with MS Word. If you have Corel or AppleWorks at home, be sure to save it as a Rich Text Document, which can be opened by any word processing application.
C) No, I didn’t get it, which makes me think you never sent it. Always email it early in the evening or weekend, and if you don’t get a response, print it out and bring it the next day.
D) As I told you on the first day and repeated nearly every time we worked on something on the computer, you cannot save anything to these computers because they are erased and re-written every night automatically. Use a flash drive or email it to me using the form on MrTonk.com.
- It was too boring. It was too long. It was too exciting for the average human being and I simply passed out from excitement, unable to complete the assignment.
Sometimes in our lives we have to do things that we may not always enjoy. The same might sometimes apply to your schoolwork, and is not an excuse.
- I had to work. I had a (game, play, concert) to participate in.
That is your second job. School is your first job. If you are working too much to complete your school work, you should cut back on your work hours. Think long term; you may be able to afford new clothes and an iPod, but will that help you support yourself ten years from now? If you are working to help support your family or if you are a teenage parent, please schedule a conference with myself with at least one of your parents present so that we can work something out. Finally, your participation in CHS activities assumes that you will tend to your academics first. If this is too difficult, I recommend you drop the activity.
- I had to do my chores. I had to baby-sit my (brother, sister, cousin, etc.).
I’m sure your parents have high academic standards for you. Tell them that you have homework and ask them to either help you find another time to do those chores, make other babysitting arrangements or otherwise help you to find time to do your work. Be sure they understand the impact it will have on your grade. Again, this is your responsibility.
- I had too much other homework.
You get out of school at 3:30 PM. What’s the problem? Also, see #5. Remember that you are practicing for a career, and you may often be burdened by a great deal of work. How will you handle your time so that you can get it all done?
- I heard from someone that you gave them extra time; why won’t you give ME extra time?
It is true that “life happens”, and that sometimes I may give extra time for special circumstances. Be sure that those circumstances apply to you before you come crying to me. Someone else’s life crisis does not excuse your lack of responsibility.
- Oops – I fell asleep and couldn’t hear the instructions.
Sleeping will not be tolerated, and repeated incidents may result in disciplinary measures. I may or may not wake you up, depending on the activity. Sleeping students will receive a grade of SLPNG, equivalent to “0”, in PowerSchool on any assignment associated with the period of time in which the student was sleeping. The assignment may be handed in for a score of NC for extra credit eligibility purposes. I will also refuse to inform you of what you missed, and you will be responsible for determining what you missed all on your own. Mr. Tonk reserves the right to add other punitive, reasonable measures as needed.
He admitted what???
From an actual piece of student writing.