How should I grade my students on their report cards? I just started teaching this past Monday.?

You should have learned all of this at an orientation for new teachers.

Yes, give credit for the Sub's work. Otherwise all that time and effort was wasted. Explain to the students that they will have to work hard to get their grades to an acceptable level.

Some teachers make it hard for others by doing nothing and handing out A's.

Wow. I can really understand where you are coming from. Being in a district myself that could care less about it's teachers and students. No budget for nothing and all the money goes towards the "rich' school in the district. Hang in there. If you can make it where you are at...you'll make it anywhere for your career! Grades-- I would use whatever was "used" during this grading period. Figure out some sort of rubic. where each kid should fall into for each assignment. Do you have a gradebook available? If everyone appears to be failing, then I would make an appointment with the principal and bring it to his/her attention. Ask for their opinion, but do not go in there empty handed. Go armed with your grades as proof! Show the grades from the first teacher, the sub and then your grades. And bring stacks of examples, if you need to. If he/she blows you off and just basically tells you to pass them. Which I could see happening in this type of situation. Then give them 'C's or D's and call it good.

In my opinion, grades shouldn't be based on what the students have done, but what they know. My suggestion would be, and yes, I would probably do this myself, would be to just ignore the stack of stuff that needs to be looked through, and make your own evaluation of what the students know. Since this is the weekend though, and grades are due tomorrow (?), that might be hard. If you feel confident that the students don't know what they should, then grade them accordingly. Chances are the stack of papers was just busy work, or not a good indicator of what they know.

Go in on Monday and do a simple evaluation of what they know. You can find my email address on my profile page. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or would like any support. Best of luck.

Hopefully you will not quit. The students have been through a lot and they do not need at this point another teacher. Have pity on them as we have it for you.. I would give full faith and credit to the subs work and evaluation. If you do quit that would make the new subs life a bit easier.

I would talk to your department head and/or the administrator in charge about what they think you should do. I would save your work for the next marking term. Try to start fresh this next term. Yes, the students may have inflated grades this term...but you can grade them correctly for the remainder of the year. Just try not to punish the students for something they had no control over...it is not their fault their other teachers have left. You can survive this. If nothing else, remember it will allow you to get your foot in the door in this district. Good luck!

You seriously need to quit and/or make it publicly known what is going on. Parents need to know how schools are teaching their children. If they knew all this they would be outraged and might start a change for the better.

Give them all C+ that way you won't get bitched at by the students for getting D or F and if they wanted a B or A just say well maby next time