Whew! Has this been a crazy weekend! On Friday night it was super cold and our heating system ended up going out, so we have been dealing with that all weekend. Also we decorated for Christmas!
This is our last week before the kids are on break, and then we have two teacher work days, so I am super pumped to get through this week because I can’t wait for Thanksgiving!
As cold and flu season is approaching, I thought I would share with how I deal with absent work. The last two years absent work was the struggle of my existence. I myself tried to keep up with getting kids their makeup work and I had a really hard time remembering everything, and I essentially took on a responsibility that is their own! So this year I came up with a new system!
How the system works is students go to this binder in the “student” bookshelf I have in my classroom.
When they open up the binder they first see the records page. This is a page they are supposed to fill out with their name, the date they were absent, and then how many days they have to make it up. The policy is double the amount of time. So if they were missing one day, the have two days and so on. While this is not always able to be done, I try to stick to it. This page is really just acknowledgment that they have work to be done.
Next they flip through the book till they find the date and class they were absent for. You will notice this information is at the top. If for some reason they can’t remember what date they were gone for, then they should be able to find their name in the box on the right. Then I have categories listed. If we did something in that category they then know to make it up. I love having in class activity as an option too, because sometimes you want the student to know that something was done, but they don’t have to make it up.
I encourage students to write down what they have missed so that then they can check it off as they complete it. If there was any papers they needed from when they were gone they go to the pink bin next to the binder.
In here I have a folder for each class that I teach.
The student should then pick the folder of the class they were absent for. Inside will be any pages they missed with their name on the paper.
Now, I don’t but tests or quizzes in this folder. I keep a folder of tests and quizzes with students’ names that need to make them up. Tests and quizzes are usually the only thing I remind students of to make up, because I am able to browse through the folder quickly. What I love about this system is that it puts makeup work in student hands. If a student tells me that I never gave them that, and I know I put it in the folder, then I am good to go!
Teachers, do you have a makeup work system that works great for you? Let me know!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Kasey