25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

160 Personality and Professionalism
undeserved punishment. I had a similar
incident in my sophomore
English class. I turned in a paper and
the teacher said I did not turn it in.
She wanted me to redo the paper. I
was very upset because that meant
retyping the paper without the benefit
of either a correcting typewriter or
a word processor. I remember telling
her that it was our job as students to
do the work and turn it in and it was
her job to keep up with the work.
Coming from a teenager, that was
considered an impudent remark.
Today, as an adult educator, I would
echo that remark with gusto.
Well-organized teachers have
routines for collecting assignments,
storage of papers, grading, and
recording grades. Experienced teachers
realize that if they do not have a
system and papers are turned in or
collected haphazardly or improperly
stored, the odds of losing
papers increases. If a teacher has
lost or misplaced a student’s paper,
the student should not be penalized
in any way. The teacher should take
responsibility for the lost paper. If
there is even a remote possibility
that the student turned in the work,
the student should receive the highest
possible grade. The rationale is
that the student may have earned
the highest grade, although that
remains an unknown. If it is not too
much trouble, teachers can offer students
extra credit to resubmit an
assignment. When in doubt about
whether or not a student turned in
an assignment, leave parents out.
This avoids providing parents with
a reason to unnecessarily punish
their children.