Coming to school with nothing but a pen and a stack of random papers stuffed in your backpack is the epitome of fatigue most students experience by the time the end of the school year rolls around.
Anticipating the classes where little classwork occurs is a huge part of the appeal of the end of the year. To my unpleasant surprise, this has not been happening. An indirect relationship seems to be occurring between the amount of motivation I have and the amount of work teachers assign.
On top of the unexpected hit of projects, extra assignments and tests, finals are something that have been in the back of my mind since we talked about them in September while going over the syllabus.
Having finals the last week of school is not only unfair, but quite frankly cruel to the students as well as the teachers who have been working and pushing for a solid nine months.
Squeezing in finals during the last week of school is a major cause of unnecessary stress for students. The last week of school is meant to slow down our workload. With finals right before the end of the school year, it leaves no breathing room for the students or the teachers.
Grades remain up in the air until you receive your report card in the mail over the summer. With no extra time to spare, students don’t have the opportunity to see if remediation is necessary to obtain their desired grade in the class. It’s unfair to the students to be left in the dark about their grades, and having finals the last week of school does just this.