Textbooks in? Check!

The deadline to collect textbook was today, and by some miracle, I collected every single one of my books without having to write a fine slip.

A few years back, in a fit of anger, I assigned homework to students who did not return their books on the day I collected them. In a lot of ways I don't even agree with my behavior. Punish students with homework? Eh, well. Sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do.

I told the students, "There are so many things we did not learn this year, and it is evident that you are still willing to learn because you are keeping your textbooks. Here are some exercises that will help you. This is not busy work. These are weaknesses from your writing that I've noticed could use some attention."

The truth is that few of the students did the homework, but they did bring their books in. That was the objective! I didn't grade or penalize the lack of homework. It wouldn't have affected their grades anyway. Shhh! Don't tell them that.

As I was leaving today, one of the near-retirees was in the office picking up fine slips to fill out. I proudly told him that I had collected all of my textbooks and how I used homework as leverage. It worked like a charm! He patted me on the back and said, "You keep telling yourself that."

Burst my bubble.