Teachers, How Have You Secretly Rewarded or Punished a Student?

teachers of reddit how have you secretly rewarded or punished a student while making seating charts thinking it would be quite a shame if i sat my least favorite kid under the arctic ac blast yes ire quite a shame anyone who comes in late to a full lecture theater at my university gets to sit under the horrible air conditioning it's on 365 days a year regardless of if temperatures are less than freezing outside it's only a little thing but when i'm marking assignments if i can see that a kid has really tried i'll write them a little note like a great effort michael i can't really see your algebra skills developing you have come a long way since i started teaching you and i know you're going to get a great grade at the end of the year if you keep working this hard i think there's something really nice about a written note i do this especially for the choir kids who might not want me to draw attention to them in class but it's my way of saying i do see you working hard even though you think you are invisible i have a student this year who makes my life heck she is blatantly disrespectful nasty to me and classmates and thinks i'm her personal waitress part of this is that every day she tries to hand me her work when i'm running around the room getting class started but she does it in this manner that implies i'm her maid i tell her every day to get up and put it in the turning box like everyone else she whines until some other classmate does it for her thursday she left her extra credit two points on her test not that much on her desk like it was my job to go get it after class i threw it away i'm not sure this is punishment as much as expecting her to follow directions but i can't honestly say i would have done the same to other students small petty justice but i did it nonetheless i assigned a very high point value project to my hs chen class a bright popular student turned in a hal fast effort i knew she knew that she half-assed it and i knew she had a conscience so i handed her my gradebook and told her to fill in her own grade i said whatever you write will be your grade no questions asked it was fun watching her squirm for 10 minutes begging me to make the choice for her i used to always show up late for my 10th grade science class one day we had a little chapter review quiz at the start of class and naturally i am a minute or two late so i walk over to my desk and the teacher hands me my quiz it's all really advanced questions comprised of polysyllabic biology jargon that i've never seen question after question is material that i'm pretty confident we have never ever covered in the class after about two minutes i look up to see how everyone else is doing on their quiz everybody was watching me and when i looked up they all started laughing the teacher had printed up a single fake quiz with super complicated biology questions just to frick with whatever kid ended up showing up last to the quiz ms cohen you were a fun teacher thumbs up a local music store was going out of business where a lot of students rented banned orchestra instruments i had a student who has a serious lifelong disability but she still participated in many things and is an outstanding student and person in general she went through some scary medical things but never complains and is so genuinely happy her family is blue-collar hard-working but i knew her medical expenses were a constant in her family's life the store was offering a discount plus their normal rent-to-own discount for students who had instruments to outright purchase them before they closed for good i contacted them and they let me pay the remaining cost of her instrument and kept my identity a secret had a kid who was working a job late into the night in order to help his family while trying to finish his senior year in high school his dad had been laid off and his mother was disabled so they were barely making it he told me that he worked late into the night and he had to miss days of school two he did the best he could in my class but just couldn't pass after missing so much class he was a senior and a good kid who needed my english class to pass figuring that the kid's life was already hard enough and that his family was struggling enough i secretly added some points to assignments he hadn't done so that his final grade went from a 50 to a 61 percent just enough to pass and graduate i don't like giving away grades and i never told him he just thought he had passed i've added points to students who were on the cusp of failing or would get letter grade improvements if they were behaviorally or socially good people i feel it's worth rewarding people who try hard or have good character as much as it is worth rewarding content when i am doing final grades if a good student is really close to a higher grade i round it up if they've misbehaved it stays where it is i used to play poker in chemistry with my friends we always seemed to lose decks of cards so one of us bought a four pack five minutes into our game our chem teacher noticed and confiscated the deck but little did he know we had three more until a minute later when he confiscated the second by the end of the lesson he'd taken all four decks we collected them at the end and went on our way cut to next chemistry lesson and we're playing poker again after 10 15 hands we realize that no aces have come up we looked through the deck and only counted 48 cards bit of a pain but we had four so we could use the aces from another deck except none of those had them too we looked up at our teacher and he was waving 16 aces at us he said if we didn't all pass our upcoming test he would give the cards back to each of us at parents evening with our parents present i was the student in this case at the very start of 10th grade my mother was in a motorcycle accident where she should have died ended up in aiku various hospitals etc for over a year meanwhile i have arthritis so i get sick easily psoriatic genetic during the third term i was sick for a week on top of already being behind from getting two hours a night to work on assignments because i went to visit my mom daily i go to my european history teacher to explain it and he immediately dismissed all my missing homework assignments for the term because he knew i was an excellent student who didn't deserve a poor grade for this his words not mine i owe that man my one b plus from that year and he's been a major reason that i'm so motivated to do well for the rest of my high school career along with my mom still being around if a student can dance on an essay where they obviously have no idea what they are talking about i'll give them some credit for the attempt for example i ask you to discuss three major causes of the french revolution causes we covered in class you don't know them but in the essay you try to extrapolate some possible causes using information you do know or attempt to morph the question into a topic you're prepared to discuss i call that dancing because a good performance can be moving and a poor performance is laughable i've gone as high as 75 credit for a good dance i am ho it demonstrates a better mastery of the material than actually parroting back what i've been talking about for the last four weeks on the other hand if you pull any of that crap that shows up on nine gag like give this drawing of some stupid memenay or whatever i will burn your butt for the rest of the semester you so much as emit a semicolon and it's half credit at best i teach a high school elective course aka not as important as english or math and i had a class that was 23 boys and two girls if you are a teacher you know this is a terrible terrible setup teenage boys are definitely pack animals and are constantly in a struggle to establish their hierarchy especially females are limited anyways these guys were a constant bowl of energy and were always doing stupid stupid guy stuff they went through a phase where they cup checked each other this went on for weeks little johnny in the back would walk up to sharpen his pencil bam cup check so one day in class one student i'll call him travis asked to go to the restroom i gave him the pass and sent him on his way the rest of the class was quietly working when another boy in the back yelled out oh my god travis just texted me a picture of his balls now i know how these guys have acted all semester and i also know the zero tolerance mess that school systems deal with i knew this could end up very very badly if it was dealt with by administration immediately got the kid to delete the text calmed the writer's laughter going on and somehow managed to get them all back on task but travis wasn't back yet and i sure as heck wasn't going to let him smuggly get away with this so i called his mom and had her on hold told her that travis had done something that i did not approve of but i felt it best if he would explain his actions to her instead of me on a side note i teach animal anatomy so terms like testicle scrotum etc are common vocabulary so and walks travis with this crap eating grin on his face he thinks he has succeeded until i casually look up from my desk and let him know his mom is on the phone there in front of the entire class he had to explain that he had just taken a picture of his testicles and sent it via text to his buddy in class you could literally hear mom screaming through the phone once he finished i spoke with her and told her that i felt the situation would be best handled by her and thanked her for her time that day i won i never fudge grades one way or the other however when i know a student has really put in the effort and is genuinely trying i'm more lenient with due dates within reason i'd rather they learn the lesson and be able to apply it later than meet a deadline i was a student and the secret kindness was from my guidance counselor not a teacher i skipped class a good bit in my senior year but i was a huge goody two shoes it wasn't a rebellion thing just trying to handle some pretty heavy life circumstances at the time i never went far and most of it was just trying to stay afloat in school work i got caught skipping class one of those times i was hiding in the school auditorium studying for my math exam later that day while my friend worked in the tech booth this was the second time i'd been caught skipping that week and since i was a girl and my friend was a dude the teachers who caught us were sure we were up to something a little more devious than studying they made very clear that i was in huge trouble and that my guidance counselor who knew me and what was going on in my life quite well would be called when she came in she looked terrifying and told me i would have to come to her office because this was such a big offense and told the other teachers that i'd be punished to the fullest extent i was appropriately shaking in my little goody two-shoes boots but when we got to her office she dropped what was apparently just an angry act and quietly told me that i could stay in her office and finish studying for that math exam for the rest of the period and essentially just kept watch for me the whole time that moment really stuck with me and the rest of her kindness throughout all of high school absolutely got me through a few of the crappiest years of my life kids who misbehave aren't always freak ups man great teachers and mentors can keep sight of that and really make a difference not a teacher but a student i switched majors in college as a junior from business to geography i had taken all the general ed classes and i was in a hurry to learn something that would have something to do with some kind of a career i took all geography classes in one semester including intro mapping classes and senior level discourses my advisor did bureaucratic magic to get me past prerequisites i had one professor who taught two of my top level classes i came in with no previous experience in the software we used or any other general knowledge required for the class i had my nose to the grindstone and put in more effort than i ever had in college in three weeks my prof had me tutoring other students who weren't doing well in the class the very first day of class i wrote down the day and time for the final exam fast forward to the end of the semester i'm sitting at an 88 with complete confidence and my ability to get an a i show up for the final and it turns out i wrote down the wrong time for the final showing up for it at the end time not the start i go to the professor's office to plead my case hoping he'll let me take the final he tells me i won't learn anything from this if he lets me take it but he knows i put the effort into the class and my final grade will reflect that grades come in and i got a 90 in the class i needed one of those scientific calculators for a class exam but my family couldn't afford one my teacher took me to his office and handed me a brand new one in a box he said i'd appreciate if you didn't tell anyone in class about this nearly cried i was only about 13 i think i gave it back to him like five years later as i wouldn't be using it again and told him to pass it on the next kid hey mr c i'm usually cool with a student charging their phone in my room but they have to ask first if they don't i try to guess their password till their phone is locked for 12 hours or better yet until they have to sign into itunes again i'm considering auctioning the seats next to outlets there's money in that i'm not a teacher but this happened to me long story short my jackass father was trying to have me taken away from my mother he contacted my guidance counselor and i am still not sure what their arrangement was all i know is that she started pulling me out of class and buying me candy and comic books and she kept asking me weird questions about my home life before too long she called me to her office and had a stack of 12 comics on her desk every marvel and dc book that came out that week she told me they were mine but first i had to talk to a social worker and tell her a few small lies about my home life that would add up to me getting forced to live with my father i told the social worker what was going on and she called my mom gave me the comics and sent me home for the day never saw the guidance counselor again ro that's fricked up in third grade my teacher would call me up to her desk and give me a life saver when i was being too rowdy antsy in class i was a hyper kid and sometimes energy got the best of me it was our understanding that when she did that i needed to chill a bit so it wasn't secret to me percent but the rest of the class was unaware of it i asked my professor if i could turn in a report by the end of the day instead of during class time since i wasn't finished he said it was okay no problem he ended up grading harsher than other students and i'm convinced it's because i turned it in late my feeling while grading is generally hey you got extra time it better be extra good when i was in ninth grade i had a principal named dr ridgway my life was just a big ball of crap to be honest i was bullied living in an escort motel it was trashy that we couldn't afford and i self-harmed dr ridgway went above and beyond for me she obviously had to get the bullies and she did anytime i felt the urge to self-harm in school i was in her office she would let me sit outside the building and listen to music so i could calm down and if it got too bad i was allowed to call mom and go home no questions asked the most important thing she did she asked the people who donated a lot of money to the school to help pay for us to live in a motel for another week she did that three times till we got on our feet to live in an apartment i've never had a teacher school worker mean so much to me i need to go visit her soon not a teacher but an occupational therapist that works in an elementary school had a guess how many legos contests at the end of the year this kiddo just has a sad life and always tells me how his siblings were happier before he was born this is a sweet kid not a mean bone in his body guess who won the legus i took a kid's phone and texted his mom saying i love you and i think i am old enough for more responsibility can i start mowing the lawn or wash the dishes or something to help you out the kid was 12 and hates me to this day i have a little activity called secret compliments that i often do when i'm starting up or taking over a new class it's a good way to get to know the students and also just try to increase the positivity in the room well one time i got a bad vibe from a class right away and i could kind of tell that all the other students dislike this one kid well i did the secret compliments game anyway where all of the kids write down nice things about another randomly chosen student and then i read them at the front of the class sure enough the kid who had to write a compliment for the class pariah wrote a nasty message instead of a compliment i changed it on the spot to a nice compliment without anyone knowing except the kid who wrote it of course and i made eye contact with him the whole time i was reading i also purposefully saved his own compliment for last to make him sweat a little and wonder if anyone had written anything nice for him or if i was going to read it at the end of the class i took him aside and privately told him that he had a new homework assignment to write 10 nice things about the class pariah and give them to him personally and that for every other kid he could get to do the same thing i would give both him and the other kid a candy bar but not to tell anyone about the candy bars or that i told him to do it i'm a strong believer in the fake it till you make it school of thought the next day the clasper i had like 100 nice notes which i of course read and checked over first and i gave a sack full of candy bars coffee crisp i love coffee crisp to the other guy to distribute he got to see how much nicer it felt to be nice and became somewhat of a class leader maybe he was before i came in but i like to think i had some positive effect on him if someone fell asleep in my high school physics class the teacher would not wake him up turn the lights off and leave in my high school our report cards only listed the letter value and not any pluses or minuses one teacher would announce any and in class after the reports came out she didn't announce your letter grade just the end one term she gave me a minus minus minus minus i had a d i was struggling in the class and had even gotten some tutoring so she knew i was trying and had given me a little boost by not giving me a failing grade but made it clear i had to push even harder i managed to improve and pass the class with a b and f may have made me give up on the class the year was a rough one right from the beginning i was teaching fourth grade and within the first week i had three or four major incidents seeing this group needed bonding i found a bicycle repairman who had a bunch of bikes in front of his lawn i arranged for a bicycle field trip along an old railroad grade that had been paved and paid the three dollar each to rent the bikes for the day the old railroad track had a slight upgrade in it so the kids would have to keep pedaling not getting too far in the distance so they didn't get too far ahead i positioned an adult in front with me in back we were dropped off at the beginning of the trail when the bus driver said i'm not going to be sticking around waiting for you and drove off oh well i had a cell phone anyway the kids were anxious to take off so i sent the parent only one volunteered off everybody took off except for one rather large girl who stood there looking rather confused this girl was the source of a lot of the issues in this class a princess of the first order and famous for her tantrums i asked what was wrong she answered i don't know how to ride a bike she wasn't snotty about it but just factual with the class riding off in the distance i told her how to pedal while i grabbed the center of her handlebars we both peddled that eight miles with me cajoling her motivating her all eight miles it was at the last mile when she finally got the balance part and finished beside me i dang near tore my left arm off that day and every time after that when she started in on her princess act i'd hold my left shoulder as if it pained me something fierce finally in march or april she would look at me saying mister ah your shoulder can't be sore anymore it was something we kept between us all year i taught high school this one kid was always in trouble always on disciplinary probation not an ounce of sense during the last period of the day the kid walked in with a soda can which was strange because lunch was already over a few hours ago he was obviously dipping i knew it and he knew i knew i picked up the can and acted like i was accidentally about to take a drink he turned pale then i apologized and said sorry all yours down the hatch and waited for him to guzzle it he guzzled it then asked if he could go to the restroom to wretch better than being suspended for possessing tobacco back in fourth grade i was yelling swear words in class little idiot me thought swearing was cool and all that and got the teacher real mad he then dragged me to the office and began lecturing me half peed off a few moments in another teacher who liked me asked him if she could take over and handle the problem for him and so i went with her afterwards after a simple don't do this again okay she let me play rune escape on her computer for the rest of the period i also helped her create an account the kid who sits behind me in high school honors physics class is named nico nice kid funny sarcastic likes to joke and mess with the teachers but knows when to shut the frick up teacher is named mr thompson old guy late 60s or early 70s and was teaching at this same high school when my dad was a freshman here way back in 1976. we've only been in school nine weeks and i could fill a thread with stories from this class mr t had already entered my top three favorite teachers list after the first class his philosophy is simple you respect me i respect you we took a test over vectors last week which required the use of graphing calculators 10 minutes left in class and nico is the last one to finish turns in test goes back to seat punches a few things in his calculator then goes son of a he sighed loudly then said ridden with despair mr t already slightly amused thompson asked what the problem was nico had just realized that he had taken his entire test with his calculator set on the wrong mode therefore all of his answers it was safe to assume were wrong mr t took a minute to calm him down then told nico that he would grade the tests over the weekend and see what he could do get the tests back monday and come to find out that mr t had gone through every problem on nico's test following his work on a separate calculator with it set on the same mode as nico's was during the test and graded it based on nico's understanding of how to solve the problems he still ended up getting a c but it still shows the level of commitment and respect he has for his students a student let off a fart bomb in class i made them sit in the room until they came up with 20 figurative terms to describe the smell if you are new to the channel you can subscribe i publish new videos every day until then check another video [Music] bye for now

Channel: On Tap Studios

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Keywords: school, school stories, teachers, teacher stories, teacher vs students, reward students, student punishments, school rules, #updootst, updoot, reddit, r/askreddit, askreddit, ask reddit, r/, \r, r\, best of reddit, reddit stories, reddit story, top posts, funniest posts, funny, funny posts, funny askreddit, reddit funny, askreddit funny, askreddit stories, sub, reddit cringe, memes, comment awards, dankify, toadfilms, updoot everything, updoot reddit, chill, story, stories, reddit on tap

Id: wBKW3FyTZxY

Length: 24min 50sec (1490 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 01 2020