Classroom
Tip – Handling Student Absence
Most Maryland
teachers are back at school, but fortunately I do not return to school until
Monday. Well, as I head back and think
about setting up my classroom, I plan to continue some classroom procedures
from previous years.
In our school, students frequently miss class
for myriad reasons. Some of their
absences are school related, such as field trips, sports, and other activities,
but many of them get sick or go on family vacations. To help students when they return, I have a place
in my classroom where they get assignments that they missed. Since they are
high school students, it also encourages them to take responsibility for
themselves.
On an accessible
counter, I stack letter trays that have folders for each day of the week. In each folder, I put a printed agenda where
students can find the objectives, activities, homework, and any handouts from
the days that they missed. I simply put
the absent student names on the appropriate handouts in the folder.
The beauty of this procedure is that it saves
me from too many interruptions during class.
When a student asks what she missed, I just point to the absence folders. Of course, this is just one of many
procedures that I will be explaining during the first week of school.
To make
reviewing classroom expectations and procedures more interesting this year, I’ve
created a set of task cards. Great for the first days of school, this
activity will engage students and require them to find answers in their syllabus, handbooks,
and other classroom resources.
Besides
helping students review their routines, the Twitter response handout requires
students to write concise answers and makes their learning relevant. For extra fun, students also write #hash tags. If you’re interested in checking them out,
click on this link.
Teachers are
always in need of new tips for handling their classroom routines, so I hope you
find my absence procedure helpful. I’ve
also created an English textbook scavenger hunt as a freebie gift for your
return back to school.
Want to find other great resources from Maryland teachers? Check out the TpT sellers below!