The notorious term “senior slide” comes around every year around the second semester. As the graduating seniors make their college decisions and prepare for graduation, they often “slide” through the second half of their school year. Although this is fun for the students, their grades take a bit of a backseat, and teachers get the short end of the stick.
For years and years, the senior slide has been something that many teachers all across the country notice with their senior students. The senior slide is expected each year, yet it’s crucial that it doesn’t start too early or get out of hand. “Teachers are aware that it’s going to come, and we want to be understanding and let them enjoy the spring of their senior year. But they still have to do enough schoolwork to show that they’re here for a reason…I think May is more understandable that they’re sliding, whereas you can’t start sliding in March and April. So meet us halfway,” math teacher John Groess said.
Teachers are aware that it’s going to come, and we want to be understanding and let them enjoy the spring of their senior year. But they still have to do enough schoolwork to show that they’re here for a reason…I think May is more understandable that they’re sliding, whereas you can’t start sliding in March and April. So meet us halfway.”
— John Groess
For many teachers, the years following the COVID-19 quarantine had the most significant senior sliding. As students were used to online Zoom classes and a lack of responsibilities, the slide became a thing for the majority of the year. “After COVID people were still trying to figure out how to play school and they were used to not having to be held accountable for deadlines. There was always room for makeup, there was so much flexibility. Getting kids to play school again was difficult,” history teacher Keith Jones said.
A great privilege that Benilde-St. Margarets offers for senior students to “skip a final.” Essentially, this privilege allows students to stay on top of their tasks. “I think if we can have something like the skip a final, it motivates students to get above a C, have good behavior, have steady attendance,” Jones said.
BSM math teacher, Mary Seppala, had an especially unique senior slide experience a few years back that really sums up this idea of sliding by. “I had a student who slept through the AP test the year after we had online classes on Zoom,” Seppala said.
Although it’s a very rewarding and refreshing experience to know that you are already committed to a college in the springtime of your senior year, teachers make it known to students that grades do in fact still matter and colleges check up on grades even after being accepted into the school. “The discussion that I have to have with seniors, especially right now, starting in March and April, [is] ‘I understand that you want to be done but you kind of need to hold it together at least long enough that you’re gonna pass the class,” Groess said.