raise your hand if you're absent

adventures and misadventures in the life of a first-year teacher

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

absentees and missing papers

I am in desperate need of a new system for absentees. You see, I am in a bit of a fix as well because I teach in five different rooms throughout the day. Half the day I'm in one room, which is great, but when I move around, I lose papers, I forget to bring other papers, and I'm basically an all-around disorganized mess.

I have not yet found a good system for dealing with students who are absent. I have tried putting papers aside with their names on (which was way too time-consuming, plus sometimes I'd forget), I've tried just keeping out all the papers from the week on my desk or carrying them around with me (which was a hassle and made my desk extremely cluttered), I've tried having someone in the class keep track of the absentees (but many of my students are incapable of this), so I need HELP! Fellow teachers, what do you do? What works, what doesn't, and what do you suggest?

posted by Teacher Lady @ 5:46 PM  

9 Comments:

  • At March 9, 2005 8:53 PM, Blogger msteacherblog said…

    Make the kids responsible for asking for their make up work after 2 days give them a 60 and move on. Life is too short.

     

  • At March 10, 2005 7:23 AM, Blogger Teacher Lady said…

    Well, it's not really a matter of them asking for their stuff, it's moreso my disorganization. I just need a good way to keep tabs on all of my paperwork. I also need to find a way for dealing with absent students so as not to waste time in the beginning of class.

     

  • At March 14, 2005 4:17 PM, Blogger KtLa said…

    You could try an accordian file. I know it would be something else to carry but organize it by week and put any kind of worksheets, just a few copies into it. Then when an absent student asks for it, you could hand it to them. I think it should be their responsibility to ask for make up work. That would also help keep you organized by what you have done with kids and what you havent. You would have a record of what you did each week. Could help you for next year, to have worksheets in a weekly order.

     

  • At March 16, 2005 3:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Office supply stores sell those plastic sleeves that are 3-hole punched that you could keep in a slim 3-ring binder. That way, your extra paperwork could go in one of those, maybe with a list on the front (top) of who was missing that day, or you could just make a written list at the beginning of the notebook of dates/absentees, with copies of the stuff inside....

    /s - Office Supply Geek :)

     

  • At April 7, 2005 1:10 PM, Blogger Vito said…

    During my brief sojourn teaching high school, I figured since I gave at least one quiz a week, and never announced them in advance, the simplest solution was to just not count a quiz when the student was absent. Easy Grade Pro made it ridiculously easy to do that.

     

  • At April 29, 2005 9:07 PM, Blogger Earl said…

    You can also staple (attach in some way) folders to a bulletin board for each day of the week. Then you simply put extra copies of work/notes/assignments in the folder. The kids then know to check the appropriate days folder for the work they missed.

    Another way you can keep the students informed is post a weekly calendar of assignments.

    e.

     

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  • At March 5, 2007 12:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

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