The most important thing

The most important thing I've learned about my students is that they lack time management skills. My school is the only high school in the county that has returned to 7 period days vs. block scheduling. I recognized early that the students seemed to lack rudimentary organizational skills. As a result, I instituted the use of a notebook with specific guidelines for organization and success. On Friday, I completed a notebook check during 7th period after posting the check for 3 days with the specific items that would be evaluated. Many of the students had all the required components. One student in my class is really experiencing challenges submitting all of the assignments and as a result, he is failing the class. I ran into his mother during lunch on Friday and invited her to sit in on his afternoon class. He was shocked to see her walk into the room. Acknowledging his lack of participation, his mom rapidly ask him for rational for his performance in the class. His response was, "I don't have time to do these assignments with the work from my other classes each night". His mother sat and reviewed the work that was missing and rapidly concluded that each assignment would take less than 15-20 minutes for an organized student. She vowed that I would see a change on Monday. Well, here we are and I can't wait to see what the day holds.