STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Tati · Chanel

teachers.....

halleybird · Hermes

here and there... no. If we're talking upwards of 4-5 times a semester, yes. It also depends on the class. My newspaper students have different attendance requirements than other students, because newspaper is more like a workplace than a classroom.

Alegria · Kate Spade

I get upset when I know the parents are flaking. At third grade the kids don't have much control over when they come to school. Like HB said here and there no but if it gets out of control I have the office people send out the truant officer and send letters home to scare the parents into sending thier kids to school. With regular classes, no matter how bright a student is they will have holes in their learning if they miss class. Many discussions and classwork simply cannot be made up at home or replicated to the same degree with one student trying to catch up.

ETA: I know my spelling/grammar is horrible but really I'm not always this bad, just being lazy.

-- Edited by shpgqueenet at 22:14, 2005-10-12

jen · Kate Spade

Okay, I had no attendence policy at my high school and I probably only went to any given class once or twice a week my senior year. I did however go to every AP English class because I'd miss way toooooo much if I skipped a day. I graduated with a 3.7 so it didn't matter if I missed. I plan to teach college and I will NOT have an attendence policy. People have kids, appointments etc. and I understand people have other things to do. Hey, at the college level, they are only wasting their own money if they don't come to class.

halleybird · Hermes

jen wrote:

Okay, I had no attendence policy at my high school and I probably only went to any given class once or twice a week my senior year. I did however go to every AP English class because I'd miss way toooooo much if I skipped a day. I graduated with a 3.7 so it didn't matter if I missed. I plan to teach college and I will NOT have an attendence policy. People have kids, appointments etc. and I understand people have other things to do. Hey, at the college level, they are only wasting their own money if they don't come to class.

I agree with this... if/when I ever teach college, I won't have one either. Basically, I think that if you can get an A in a class and not go, there's something wrong with the class.

However, at the high school level it's different -- unlike college, kids don't have any money or viable interest, so I think a policy is necessary to some extent.

In my state, we legally cannot give credit to a student who misses 12 or more days of school per semester, no matter what they were doing (only exception being hospital-verified medical excuses). At my school, they have a tracking program that alerts students once they've hit 6 absences in a particular class -- they sign a contract stating that they are aware they will lose credit at 12.

Also, school attendance is mandatory in a lot of states (including ours) for kids under age 16. If those kids violate the attendance policy, their parents pay a fine.

Anyway. Sorry to hijack your thread, Tati!

Alegria · Kate Spade

jen wrote:

Okay, I had no attendence policy at my high school and I probably only went to any given class once or twice a week my senior year. I did however go to every AP English class because I'd miss way toooooo much if I skipped a day. I graduated with a 3.7 so it didn't matter if I missed. I plan to teach college and I will NOT have an attendence policy. People have kids, appointments etc. and I understand people have other things to do. Hey, at the college level, they are only wasting their own money if they don't come to class.

Heck,if your teaching adults, it's not your problem.

Tati · Chanel

thanks for your opinions girls

laken1 · Hermes

Wow, I'm not a teacher & i don't have kids so this is really none of my business, but I'm floored that parents don't send theirkids to school every day? I guess I'm naive but I had no idea that this was really an issue, especially at the elementary level! Why in the world wouldn't they send them? Sorry, I just didn't realize this was a problem - I had to be on a literal death bed for my mom to keep me home. I remember ONCE in high school my mom & my aunts were going away to shop for a day & I was whining on the way to school & she said "what the heck, one day won't kill you" (I was a great student - graduated 11th in my class). I remember it so vividly because it never ever happened. Just curious. And disturbed.

jen · Kate Spade

Well, I missed so much school my senior year because it was such a waste of time. I didn't learn a damn thing in 80% of my classes so I didn't bother waking up at 6:30 am to sit in a class that taught nothing with uneducated teachers babbling for an hour. I'm a junior in college now and it pisses me off that every prof. I have has an policy that you can only miss 2 classes.

In my educational psych class today, we watched a two hour movie and a bunch of random shit while the prof. just sat at her desk. None of that info will be on the test. I looked around and half the students had their heads down and the other half were doodling on notebook paper. What's the point of that? Why do I have to be there?

laken1 · Hermes

While I certainly understand not going to class in college / jr college, etc - i think it's ridiculous for parents to keep home their young children from school! As a college student, you are an adult & i think if you can pass without being there, more power to you. For me even what I learned in my senior yr at high school was vital to my college curriculum, so for you Jen if it wasn't, I think maybe they had you in the wrong classes - or I agree with Halleybird - that is a reflection on the fact that something is wrong with the class. But for a parent to hold their children out of school while they are learning things that will be built upon for years to come (math, english, etc) that is just absurd to me! I guess I just didn't realize it was even an issue or that parents would let their kids stay home. Baffles me.

jen · Kate Spade

Well, I was in the top of my class, in national honor society etc. so I had all my required classes taken by junior year, I wanted hard classes on my transcripts so colleges would see that. This is common pratice at my high school (and I thought in others). Senior year, you have to fill up a schedule with 8 classes (and colleges don't really see those, anyway, I was already accepted) so I was taken art, bussiness math, graphic arts, random English classes, sewing etc. A waste of time but I had to take 8 classes...

edit; But yeah, I don't know why young children would not go to school. Those years are important to little minds!

-- Edited by jen at 13:47, 2005-10-13

laken1 · Hermes

jen wrote:

Well, I was in the top of my class, in national honor society etc. so I had all my required classes taken by junior year, I wanted hard classes on my transcripts so colleges would see that. This is common pratice at my high school (and I thought in others). Senior year, you have to fill up a schedule with 8 classes (and colleges don't really see those, anyway, I was already accepted) so I was taken art, bussiness math, graphic arts, random English classes, sewing etc. A waste of time but I had to take 8 classes...
edit; But yeah, I don't know why young children would not go to school. Those years are important to little minds!-- Edited by jen at 13:47, 2005-10-13

Don't disagree - I was the same way & i took all advanced classes my senior year in the major categories (english, math, etc) but then I ended up taking..typing 1 even though I already typed 60 wpm & office aide (no credit) just to fill in hours! On the up side, my little sister is a senior this year & the school I went to changed the requirements so she only has to go until lunch everyday - which i think is beyond cool! That makes so much common practical sense!!!!

I think the thing on this post that threw me for a loop is when someone referenced 3rd grade???

-- Edited by laken1 at 13:54, 2005-10-13

theotherjess · Chanel

laken1 wrote:

On the up side, my little sister is a senior this year & the school I went to changed the requirements so she only has to go until lunch everyday - which i think is beyond cool! That makes so much common practical sense!!!! I think the thing on this post that threw me for a loop is when someone referenced 3rd grade???-- Edited by laken1 at 13:54, 2005-10-13

Oh, are you serious? That's awesome! I am a senior this year and I am taking 4 AP classes, yearbook, and Spanish Honors. I wish I could take slacker classes but now a lot of colleges actually request for your senior grades to be sent in after first semester and then at the end of the year

. That whole "junior year is the hardest" thing was such BS.

halleybird · Hermes

laken1 wrote:

Wow, I'm not a teacher & i don't have kids so this is really none of my business, but I'm floored that parents don't send theirkids to school every day? I guess I'm naive but I had no idea that this was really an issue, especially at the elementary level! Why in the world wouldn't they send them? Sorry, I just didn't realize this was a problem - I had to be on a literal death bed for my mom to keep me home. I remember ONCE in high school my mom & my aunts were going away to shop for a day & I was whining on the way to school & she said "what the heck, one day won't kill you" (I was a great student - graduated 11th in my class). I remember it so vividly because it never ever happened. Just curious. And disturbed.

Trust me -- it's a different world now. I grew up that way too. We have parents who let their kids stay home if they have a bad hair day, are really tired, need to shop for a prom dress, etc. And they're the norm, not the exception. They take their kids for week or 2-week-long vacations in the middle of the school year, etc... Then they get mad b/c the kids have a hard time catching up with the work. Ugh.