Gray Area

Dilemma.

Math class at the continuation high school. They do all their work on the computer, so my job is to make sure they're on the proper program (not checking their Twitter feeds), their scores are recorded as they finish each section, and they have any extra help if they get stuck. Easy day.

Second period needed a bit of a push. Two students hung back acting like they were just going to chill until I reminded them that it was class time. They went to their computers and logged in.

The two boys were on their assigned computers. The correct program was up. They did not slip onto Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other myriad websites that the kids these days like. (I watched.)

However, they were not doing any work.

Should I mention them in my note to their teacher?

Generally, I mention the names of students who behave badly. From time to time, I'll note students who don't work all that well. But it depends on the situation. Students who end up at the continuation high school weren't the most industrious of workers. If they had been, they would never have gotten to the point where they needed to go to the continuation high school.

While the boys weren't doing much at all, they weren't behaving badly. Staring at walls is not behaving badly as far as I'm concerned. They weren't disturbing anybody. They didn't talk back to me. The only thing they were doing wrong was not doing the assignment.

But this teacher is pretty strict. Writing that in my note would get them in trouble.

Which leads to my dilemma: mention them in the note or not.

It's not like the teacher won't know they didn't work. He can see they made no progress. The computers record all sorts of things, like how long a student was on a particular problem or section.

It's a good day when this is what I worry about.