<p>In US History I Honors this past sophomore year, I had the really mean history teacher. She would not teach the material, just lecture all the time and give us essays. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I handed in my term paper one hour late and stayed home from school during that block. However, when I came back to school the following Monday, I found out that my teacher did not count it since it was considered "late" even though I wasn't there to turn it in. She didn't accept it. She gave me a zero even though I did all the work. She said she'll call my mom to tell her about this but she never did. It was at the end of the year. The zero for my term paper brought my grade down from an 83 to a 74 for that marking period. It made me get a 76 overall for the course combined with tardy points taken off. Next year I wanted to take US History II Honors and AP European History but the minimum grade is an 80 for honors and 85 for AP. However, now I'm not allowed to take the advanced courses because of my grade, since the paper was in an hour late. I am so ****ed. Today I signed course waivers to be in the classes, but I don't know if I'll stay in. This has happened before, I signed one last semester to stay in honors English.
Doesn't this incident count as harassment? It wasn't fair. I used to love history, but my history teacher this year killed my interest. Do you have any advice for what I should do regarding this?</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t count as harrassment. You always have to meet the course requirements to make the grade you think you deserve. If there was a procedure for you to get excused from the deadline the you should have followed it.</p>
<p>Be careful with “mean” teachers because they have the discretion to grade as harsh or as leniently as the rules allow. Next time you have a difficult teacher do not give her/ him the power to unduly affect your grade. Be as compliant as possible and have your parents intervene early to clear up any misunderstandings BEFORE your grade is adversely affected.</p>
<p>If you like history and think you’ll do well in the classes don’t let one bad teacher prevent you from taking them. Hopefully, you won’t have that teacher again.</p>
<p>Go to her superiors. That’s your only option. Get your parents to come with you and have a discussion face to face with them in front of your principal/dean/whatever. It happened with my precal teacher this year who refused to teach the material and wouldn’t accept late work for excused absences, and with one of my old algebra 2 honors teachers (I got an 84% on an exam using my own method for solving for conic sections and stuff and she gave me a 25% for not using the correct method, even though my work was shown). I got her demoted to teaching business math since she caused me and 2 other students to fail that semester. Always go to your bad teachers’ superiors.</p>
<p>It was turned it late, but the work was done! The teacher should have graded it and perhaps deducted points for it being late, but absolutely not a zero. Was the absence excused or unexcused? And I suggest you find your rubric for her class from the beginning of the year and read the grading policy. Arrange a meeting with you, the principal, your parents and the teacher. Not only did this affect your grade, but your ability to enroll in higher level classes. Call the school and if this is all resolved, they can possibly change your final grade.</p>