The Absent Student

Students are unfortunately going to be absent but having a plan or procedure in place will ensure that the student misses as little as possible. I first started thinking about this when I stumbled across Mrs. Gilchrist's Blog. Mrs. Gilchrist is another amazing talented teacher who spends her free time sharing her success stories and hard work to ensure that others in her profession will benefit from her experience.

I came across the following item which I found absolutely genius! I have all the supplies to make my own folders yet have not completed the project yet. As soon as I do, I will post pictures. I will be creating 5 of these for the year. The rule I have established for my classroom is that in order for the work to be accepted, it has to be turned in with the folder. I hope having 5 in circulation will be enough. If you use this method, how many do you have for your class?

I decided to take this wonderful idea and make it my own. In addition to the absent folder which will have all of the handouts for the day inside, I created a Vistaprint postcard. You can't see it in the picture but under the title in white it reads "While you were out, we...."

One of my classroom jobs (future blog) is table manager. I have 5 of these... one for each of the table groups in my classroom. The job of the table manager is to pass out and collect assignments as well as make sure the absent postcard is filled in and all papers for the day are secured inside the folder. This item will be left on the students desk for their return unless a parent has called to request homework. Then it will be available after school in the office. The reason it is left on the desk is just in case the student is absent more than one day.

Thoughts on improving this item: add spelling as a subject, add a date line, and add a name line. Also thinking about adding "So glad to have you back!" as the last line on the back of the postcard. For now, this sample would work. It is sitting in my Vistaprint goody box in the garage waiting for some lucky future student.