Friday, September 24, 2010

I made a student cry today

She was up at the board and I was having her draw out one of the graphs for exponential population growth rates (dN/dt vs N)… she had the picture right, but didn’t label the axes and couldn’t explain it correctly. I kept pushing her (and giving her BIG hints) until I noticed the tears welling up in her eyes…I think she was scared to be in front of the class and didn’t really know what was going on.

Has this ever happened to you? What did you if so?

4 comments:

Sparkling Squirrel said...

Fortunately, not at the board. I have had a student start shaking during a mock interview and just leave, and I have had students cry in my office.
I'd probably ask another student to go up and help out.

Sparkling Squirrel said...

Oh, I forgot to add that you are really mean.
And cruel.

Jennifer said...

Well,
I am a cold-hearted grader after all. So I can't deny it.

Tucson Trekker said...

This world needs more cold-hearted graders.