Teaching Multiplication

I taught my students how to do standard multiplication today instead of the lattice system they love. It is a trick method that doesn't teach or help students with place value. I told them that if they needed to use it, not to put it onto the paper that they hand in for their work.

My class with the most IEP students were my last two periods of the day and they were not going to focus or work very hard. Why is handing back papers so time consuming? anyone with any suggestions? I am insistant that only a teacher hand back tests and quizzes to protect the students from others knowing the grades.

I had a boy complain that it was wrong that I had scored his paper an "F." I had asked him to round 3 numbers (no decimals) and he didn't do any of them even closely correct. He also didn't write anything in the area to describe how to round numbers. Some of this was because he had wasted classtime and note completed the task because he didn't know it was going to be graded as a quiz. Failure is Failure in my room. If there is understanding and focus in class, it's hard to fail.

I also learned that if a students grades are padded too high, then the school won't consider testing them for learning disabilities. I need to do my job of being fair. I really don't like students failing at items that they should have some understanding by now in their middle school career.