Thursday, August 23, 2018

Not Absent


The CAD class continues on...

Currently, there are two students enrolled in period seven. (It didn't start out that way. Originally, there were six.) Alas, these two aren't terribly reliable when it comes to their attendance. I'm lucky if one of them shows up.

On Monday, my liar from last week, Thomas, showed up. He again watched videos.

On Tuesday, Billy showed up.

I wasn't expecting much from him, so I was shocked when he actually did the assignment. Seriously. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I tried to play it off like it was no big deal, but it was.

Alas, on Wednesday, I was alone in seventh period again.

However, as I was noting this in the attendance software, I noticed something strange. Billy had been marked absent for the prior day. Not only absent, his absence was noted as a "cut".

(The attendance clerks check absences, and they all eventually get a code. So, if the student was out due to illness, that's noted. If the student was on a field trip, that's noted too. And if students are out for non-approved reasons, those are noted as well, such as a "cut".)

Now, there are times when I might mis-mark the attendance, but when there are only two students in class, it's kind of hard to make a mistake. (And as one student was Latino and the other African-American, it wasn't like I was going to mix them up.)

I made sure to follow up with the attendance clerk. She went to check. And that's when she remembered.

Teachers make mistakes on roll sometimes. A teacher might mark a student present who is absent. This error is usually discovered when a student is marked absent in all but one of their classes.

As I was certain I had Billy in class, the clerk fixed his attendance. He had attended one class that day. And since he had only attended one class on Tuesday, then the one class he attended on Monday must have been correct as well. (It was his fifth period that day.)

Well, attending one class a day is progress of a sort. Now, if he would just commit to a couple more hours...

18 comments:

  1. Interesting bunch of students ;-)
    What is CAD class?
    Does every school have these detailed attendance logs?

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    1. Computer aided drafting. It's my third (now fourth) week in the class, so I stopped explaining what it is. Laziness on my part.

      I don't know if every school has them. Every school in my district does. And the attendance software is pretty standard. I would not be surprised if many districts use it. They keep pretty clear track. (And there's a phone system to alert parents to when their kiddos are absent.)

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    2. CAD sounds like it could be an interesting class to take. I sort of wished we had had that when I was a teen.

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    3. It is a cool class. Of course, when we were teens, we were typing on electric typewriters... (I was, at least.)

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  2. Do you ever feel like a glorified babysitter? Like the kids are just marking time in the class?

    betty

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  3. I'm sorry your frustrations go beyond 'sometimes', but am not surprised. ~shakes head~ This student has to check that box, too. Thank you for the kind word on my blog. Here in Ohio we get rain all through the year. July and August often bring a lot of thunderstorms. Be well!

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    Replies
    1. So weird. We don't get rain in the summer. I think it's rained once in June and twice in July. In the last 20 or so years.

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  4. I guess one a day is his limit (eyeroll).

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  5. Small steps. Hopefully you provided some verbal encouragement. Kids who are troubled oftentimes need a little extra attention.

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  6. It's a start. I'm so glad I'm not a kid today.

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  7. At least he showed up to yours that one day *shakes head*

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    Replies
    1. It's progress of a sort. A lot of these kiddos have issues with school, so getting them in the building is a win.

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  8. I know I would be lost with a lot techie stuff and I know I could learn it.
    Coffee is on

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  9. At least he did his assignment and he showed up..kind of:)

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  10. They have attendance software here and roll is marked at the start of the day and for every class. On that basis, why would you only go to one class?

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  11. One class is progress! Better than not showing up at all. :)

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