I have been dealing with chronic tardiness in my class. The other teacher & I have been trying to figure out a way to control or handle this situation. One of the rules of the school is that 3 Tardies = 1 Absense. Students must also be in class at least 70% of the month to avoid suspension.
We decided this week that we would make "Beauty Bucks". These are fake $1 paper money. The students have a student rate for receiving their services. They would receive the "Beauty Bucks" on Friday's if they have not been absent or tardy all week. These "Beauty Bucks" can go towards their hair services that they receive from other students. They seem to like this idea. We thought this would be a great incentive for them. If anyone have any other ideas, please let me know.
Tardiness is one the concern of mine. In our school and I guess in every school there is a tardy policy which is completely worthless and since the students know it they take advantage of it. For me, it has been very simple; any unexcused absence or tardy, or class cutting will definetely have an impact on the student employability skill grade. My student know it, I do remind them from time to time and for the majority of the time it works. The most important thing for us as teachers is to find whatever ways to get to class so that we can teach them.
ReplyDeleteWow! This is a great idea! I love it. I am going to try to develop something like that ...I think! My time is limited. I don't know if I can start this program - with some other kind of incentive of course!
ReplyDeleteTardiness was a big issue with our school at the start of our first semester. The adminstration then changed the policy, that after 5 tardies the student has to serve a detention time in the morning before school. If they miss it, it is an automatice 1 day In-School-Suspendsion. If they miss that then they get 3 days Out-of-School Suspension. I know that punishement doesn't usually work to help change students behavior but with this new policy, our tardies have been cut down by more than half. You will always have a few that just don't care and will be tardy when ever they want to. I have tried the employability skill speech but the majority of my freshman are not even on the radar screeen with concerns on employment after graduation.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea, but at the same time I have a hard rewarding students for doing something they should do anyway.
ReplyDeleteI've tried a couple of things. School policy is that after 3 tardies, the student gets private detention. The next tardy results in a referall to an administrator and the stakes get higher. There are many teachers who don't keep track of the tardies, but my students know that I do, so most of them get there on time. Tardies also result in points taken off their class participation grade, which is 15% of the overall grade. I don't know if that's what did the trick, but the number of students tardy to my classes is way down this year.