Ms. Boila, a science teacher here at Struthers, is trying her best to prepare her students for finals this year. She is also putting a lot of thought into working around the voucher system.
She teaches two classes, Integrated Science and Biology. For Integrated Science, she plans to do an exam based on the materials she taught over the course of the year. As for Biology, she plans on an exam based on the frog dissections they plan to do.
Boila, who has a kid in high school herself, plans to make her finals a more relaxed difficulty, but not easy.
“I usually try to make them mid range difficulty because I understand how it is tough for some students to deal with all of their finals, but I also want to test them on their knowledge,” said Boila.
The voucher system lets students “voucher out” of their midterms and finals if they have good behavior and attendance.
Boila, as a first year teacher, is finding ways to work within and around the system.
“I still make the students do the review for the final and count it as a grade even if they are going to voucher out of the test,” says Boila.
Even though she has to work within and around the voucher system, she still supports it as an idea. It supports good behavior and attendance, and it makes the classroom environment better as a whole.
Boila, the science teacher, is happy that the system is improving students’ behavior.
“I like the voucher system because it rewards students for good behavior and attendance, and it gives them something they perceive as valuable to strive for, which makes things easier for me as a teacher,” says Boila.
