Sunday, October 5, 2008
One challenge that I have encountered this year is that I have an unfavorable number of students skipping my classes. This in turn puts more work on my plate because I not only have to call home but have to right a referral and fill out a call log as well. Because the students keep doing it week after week I am growing weiry of even contiuing the process. The funny part about all of this (yes there is a funny side) I haven't even had a chance for the students to develop a hatred for me because many of them have skipped nearly the entire month of September. A few of them have made their way back to class but there are still quite a few out. When they do return to class it is a challenge to get them on track because they are so far behind. The other challenge is that the students may end up skipping again after my attempt to get them on track. I will continue to help my students strive for excellence but seems to be proportionate to their own desire to succeed.
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4 comments:
Hi there!!
I understand what you are talking about in the class. I do not know what you teach but this is what I would try to do for the students that are there in class. I would come up with some type of rubrics or task sheet for the students with what you are doing in the class so they know what they need to do. Give the students a time limit to do something because once they see that they are getting a grade on they will be more out to do what you wont them to do.
maybe just maybe the students will come back to class wan they can see the end of what you are doing in class.
I have had similar problems, but not to the extreme that you have mentioned. As I read your blog, words like dfacs, truancy officer, and administrative withdrawal swirl around my head, because this is what our administrators have used in these cases. The realities for some of your students who are skipping are dim if you have the type of class that is cumulative. Once they have missed the beginning, it is almost impossible to catch up. I’m not sure what your administrators require of you, but I would eliminate one of the items that you do every time the child is missing, maybe the phone calls home. Let’s face it, at some point you have to teach. It seems that you have reached the point where your situation must be handled by the school administrators.
I am also struggling with several students skipping my classes, or failing severely. I understand your pain! Failing students puts more work on us as teachers. What I have started doing in my class with my students that have a high absentee rate is- assign them to an "A" student. I put the A student in charge of the failing student. I give the A student the flunking kids make up work, or study assignment for the day. They then are like a teacher helper. I handed out flash cards to eight of my students and assigned them a student that failed the test. Then, they have to help that student study or finish their assignment. This is actually working pretty well for me. I had 17 F's in my 5th period. I am now down to nine F's in 5th period. By the way, this was only after about eight school days. The rest of the class went on with the next assigment, but now I have even C students asking what they can do to get their grade to an A. My 5th period now seems to have a motivation boost. I didn't expect my "teamwork" idea to actually work, but it did. I still work one on one with two or three of my students that are way behind. I have grades as low as 2% due to students skipping. I've called home, and now one student will be seeing me for not only help with automotive, but I will be tutoring him in math and literature. I will be getting his work from other teachers and basically helping him start and finish assignments.
Another thing that I am doing in class is making a "club" This is where students get extra time to finish work, do extra labs, or clean up tools in the shop for more grades or to improve already existing grades. My students also get points for going to any automotive events outside of school.
I had this problem at Jackson County High School. If a student had over five unexcused absences, they would fail the course. We would have a comference with the parents, and if the student still failed to show up for class, we would turn it over to the police. If there is not some type of early intervention this student will finally drop out of school. The rational is I will skipped school today, but tomorrow I will be at school. However, they repeat this same thing the next day and soon they drop out. I know because this is what happened to me. I would skip one day then two then three and finally I quit. I wanted to work and buy me a race car. fortunately I realized what a dead end this was leading to and I went bad to school fully dedicated.
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