tsurara

So it's the "cutest time of the year": the time of year when students line up to say "hello!" or "good morning" in their brightest voices with big happy smiles; the time of year when students leave handwritten notes and small gifts on my desk; the time of year when students who usually tease me or give me a hard time are respectful and sweet.

ie. it's time for their Reading and Speaking Tests (which I grade and which are incredibly subjective).

My question: does being incredibly nice to the teacher affect your grades in things that are, by nature, subject to judgement calls and opinions?

Case Study #1:

A 14 year-old student of mine came into the testing room for his test. I was still busy writing comments for the last student in Japanese and said "can you hang on just a minute?"

him: "Are you writing comments for everyone?"
me: "Yeah... in Japanese. It's kind of a pain!"
him: "Yeah. Japanese is really hard! Even for Japanese people. I'm pretty sure that even I would have trouble writing that many comments for that many people in such a short time... You're really something."
me: "...."

I couldn't help but grin at how thick this kid was laying it on. He's in the LOWEST level class, and while he's fallen in with a bad crowd: I know he's a smart kid. I've also seen him studying for this test and know it means a great deal to him.

His final grades: A B A A

I didn't intentionally rate him higher than the others... but his friendliness made me remember that I had seen him studying, had asked me questions about the test beforehand and that he was taking this test seriously.

The question is, did I subconsciously rate him higher because I had gotten the impression that he cared more about his grade than the other students?


Case Study #2

A kid who I'm rather fond of also took the same test. He knows I like him but he didn't do anything to suck up. He asked me to choose a page for him to read: and I chose the most difficult, just to give him a hard time. He did it wonderfully and scored full marks except for Loudness and Emotion. Emotion can't be helped, everyone bombed it. But he's rather timid and a bit femenine... volume isn't his strong-suit. I gave him a B... which would have been fine had he continued at the volume he started with. Unfortunately, his voice got softer and softer after I had written the grade down. In reality, he probably deserved a C in the end. But since I was grading in front of the students, I felt terribly scratching it out and changing it to a lower one.

And I ~had~ made him read the hardest page!

Later on the stairs I heard a voice call out "Ijiwaru!" (Bully). I said "huh?" and looked to see my student, smiling. He said, "page 35!"

In this case, the reward of friendliness came AFTER the possible act of favortism.

Question: was is unfair to justify the higher grade by the difficulty of the page I told him to read?

Does sucking up work?
Do you do it?
Do you fall for it?

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NevesElocin

It works with teachers who either gullable ot just don't care. I personally would not suck up to a teacher I don't like for a good grade, its pathetic. I'd rather take my bad grade and fail than get a good one because I made a fool out of one of my teachers. And any teacher who falls for it shouldn't consider themselves a competent adult.

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Our love will go on until the end of time. I will always be yours and you will be mine.

equinn

ok i can easly say i do suck up but i dont mean to i just get along really good with all my teachers i never talk to them like there my teacher and i do answer most qestions given to me ^^ and i do get sucked up to but i dont fall for it ... cos im like will u f**** oFF PLZ

and if u gave the sudent the most hard page i think he might have desived it like to end put reading it infrount of poeple wow!! i couldnt have done so

and like if they desurve the grad do what some of my teachers do grad them on what there like in class and also in the tests... half and half it may get them to behave and go well ^__^

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divine_punishment

Teachers are humans, too. We fall for it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some students are just friendly like that; they aren't out for an A based on the size of their smile. We remember the better qualities about them when they're nice. I wish the other students would figure it out!

I have been known to suck up in my day (yesterday, in fact . . . ). But it's not really sucking up. I want to know how my professors are, I want the people at the restaurant to have a good day; my boss is my second mother, for goodness' sake.

In other words, you can't be even-handed to everyone. There are ways (even subconscious) to tip the scales.

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Hassun

Of course it works. And it works on a grand majority of people too.
It being such a time tested-method to get ahead is enough proof that it works.

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Legend

Just look at Sinistra.

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koga23

Dose sucking up work yea it dose from what i seen over the years.People sucking up to get some thing or being some one else fav.People that do that piss me off taking the easy way out.Would i do it to teachers and such no i would not,I usually piss them off in one way or another which is pretty funny.

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fireandice

I don't think that most people really try to suck up tp other people. I don't but I seemed to be well like by my teachers when I was in school. So as a result I was give a push or something when I was haveing trouble. But I was also very honest with people as well so I think that most of them liked me because of that. But did I do that on purpose? No I didn't. They just liked my personality in class and I never really caused any trouble. So it really all comes back to your personal oppion of people. Rather it's right or wrong is up to each person to decide but teachers are human as well. So I don't belive that you did anything wrong.