Job Discussion Forums

ibasiram · Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 107

It'a actually happened a few times where I work.. one day, it was the 'first day of spring' (There is a day at the end of March in Poland oficially when spring starts, and students try not to go to school..) and no students at all came to one of the teacher's classes....... the school did nothing about it....because it was the first day of spring....
What do you / does your school do when your teenagers don't show up for class??
Just wondering,
Ibasiram.

Steiner · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 573 Location: Hunan China

I go home.

When my dad was in high school, the school let them skip the first day of hunting season.

Ben Round de Bloc · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

In my school, if the student is truant more than 30% of the classes, the student is not given the certificate.

Boy Wonder · Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 453 Location: Clacton on sea

When my teenage students don't show up, I breathe a huge sigh of relief, put my feet up and carry on with the more important business of completing the Herald & Tribune crossword!

XXX · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 4:07 pm Post subject:

Kids are going to cut class when the weather gets nice everywhere. Don't beat your head against the wall unless it gets out of hand. If it does, come down hard on them. Call their parents!

Where I teach, the opening day of hunting season is a holiday.

rj · Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 159

khmerhit · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 5:18 pm Post subject:

Man, i gotta get out of this city.

Aramas · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:01 am Post subject:

Shaman · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 446 Location: Hammertown

I don't teach teenagers anymore, but I remember being one. Missing one day of school amounts to a hill of beans really, doesn't it? If it impacts on the teacher's salary, that's another matter. Still, one little indiscretion shouldn't be cause for one to even bat an eye, IMHO.

Shaman

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

I usually have the policy everyone gets one day to miss classes...no need for excuse. If there is a continual problem, the best solution is to have the school bring the parent sin for a conference about their child. Works extremely well in China.

I have a Friday afternoon class in China. I told them we will have the class when possible on Thursday night. Couldn't have it this Thursday night, but the whole class had volunteered to do some local work Friday afternoon. I told them, that's better then going to my class, go do the volunteer stuff.
!
Don't know what will happen if my school finds out.

ibasiram · Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 107

I guess bringing in the parents would be a good idea..we often have to do that with discipline problems and it works wonders for a few weeks because you can actually see the terror in the student's eye..
I wanted to call in the parents too after that first day of spring debacle, but the school wouldn't hear of it..but we sternly warned them ...next time... and that hasn't come yet Exclamation

Actually on another issue...I've got an angry parent coming to me today because her daughter ( who apparently was very sick) has been playing truant recently..
Ibasiram.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Aramas,
you are being dangerously judgmental in your post; in my university we expat teachers were never told to monitor attendance, yet I know fthrough enquiries that there are official student lists (printed in CHinese) where CHinese teachers enter "absent" or "present"...
This goes to show how ridiculous the situation in China is: we expats are not instructed to take care of their discipline, though we are the first target of criticism if we are late.
Anyway, I printed out my own attendance sheets. Students had to enter their names in Roman letters; I even had to teach them how to write their names that way...
The most remarkable thing is that these kids come to classes that are designed for secondary class students (by my standards). They can't take notes - never learnt that, always depending on teachers handing out photocopies or rteferring to pages in books.
I give them assignments - they seldom do homework (with notable exceptions). Why? Truants? Not necessarily - just not used to being responsible for themselves!
That's why I require them to present a formal excuse in writing for being absent from my classes.
You know what?
Suddenly, I got papers with a red chop from some office, confirming that such and such will be missing in my class for this or that reason...
Apparently, the CHinese universities do require Chinese students to attend every lesson!

I found not a few that have invalid reasons for not coming to class - unashamedly telling me "I overslept" or "I was not in my dorm"...

And recently, I was handed a list of students in my classes... in Chinese. I am expected to enter their grades in exams at the end of this term!

Kurochan · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 944 Location: China

Maybe remind them that they can't get a good final grade for the course if they miss too many classes, regardless of the exam grade. Can you do that? I'm forced to make the final 60% of the grade ( Evil or Very Mad

), but that leaves in-class work for the other 40%. Lately a lot of people have been absent, so I reminded students that missing class would lower their mark for that portion of the grade.