I'm a teacher, here's how to get good grades

Hello everyone, I've been teaching for 3 years, grades 6-8, English and Science. This should totally apply to high school as well. I've been seeing a lot of threads like this from students asking what makes teachers happy, what they can do to get an A, etc. <br><br>Here's my top 5 tips to get an A:<br>1. **BE NICE**: This can take you a long way. I will sometimes bump a grade from an F to a D- just because someone is nice and I feel bad they didn't pass. Try to be genuinely nice to your teachers and *talk to them* often. Ask them questions about their weekend, their family, the school play, etc because *we like to talk about it* and I honestly remember kids that are kind to me. If you're normally a polite kid, you'll be surprised at how much effort I will put in for you, and how much I will go to bat for you, talking to your parents, the principal, or even the school board.<br><br>2. **ATTENDANCE AND BEING ON TIME**: I really don't care that much what your home life is, I want to see you at school ready to go at 8:00 AM/afternoon. Nothing makes me more angry than chasing down a kid at 9:30 because they didn't feel like coming to school. If you're not here, how are you going to learn anything? I go out of my way for the kids that are there every day, and am much more strict on the kids that miss a lot of school.<br><br>3. **GIVE EFFORT**: I don't care if you're the worst artist or the worst writer, I want to see you *try*. I can tell when a kid puts in zero effort into something and a lot of times that assignment gets a 0. I've also been known to give extra credit or even 100% for something that a "bad" artist did because I could tell they spent 3 class periods on it. I grade for effort a lot more than the actual quality of the work.<br><br>4. **BE ORGANIZED**: I see a lot of kids lose assignments, lose track of when things are due, get confused about what's going on in class. This is all so easy to fix with a planner or a binder or something. And get your phone organized, if you have 50 reminders going off that means you're getting notifications for Instagram and Snapchat and stuff, which is distracting. Turn your phone off for 50 minutes, it'll be okay. <br><br>5. **LISTEN AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS**: This is my biggest pet peeve. I'll be talking to kids one on one or something, and say "make sure you put your name and date on your assignment, and the staple goes on the left corner", and I'll come by later and see they have no name, no date, no staple. I'm not asking much, I don't want you to write a thesis every night. Just follow the instructions and do what you're told.<br><br>Honorable mention: **Participate**: I love seeing kids get engaged in what we're learning, ask questions, and answer questions. It makes it *so much fun* to teach when you see a kid who is genuinely interested in what we're talking about that day. It also shows me that you're not just here for a grade, that you actually care about your education.<br><br>So there's my advice from a teacher, we're human, too. I want all my kids to do well and I will go above and beyond to make sure they do, if they're nice, and try.