Week 9 Reflection

October 19th - 23rd, 2009

The flu has officially hit Suncrest Middle School, and it hasn't been pretty. Last Friday, over 80 students were absent school wide - and there are only 135 students in the 8th grade! While our classes are smaller, the work load for the teachers becomes more demanding: keeping track of absences, getting students caught up on their work, and trying to track down make-up work. This is another job in and of itself!

At first, it seemed like a burden every time a parent would call the school asking for their sick child's make-up work. However, I began to realize the unfortunate truth that few parents even consider work missed because of absences. Suncrest gives students two days to make up everything that they have missed, but the work definitely accumulates if a student has been gone for multiple days. And some of these students have been out for a week straight. When parents take the initiative to collect any make-up work, that's one less student that the teacher needs to nag about getting caught up.

Our list of students who owe overdue assignments has grown exponentially - and before every class, we have to remind the same students, day after day. I am beginning to sound like a nag, and I hate it. Not only is this daily task time consuming; the organization for make-up work is yet another obstacle. If there is any standardized way to keep track of how many points each student loses for missing assignments, I certainly haven't found it. Unfortunately, it's not even winter yet, so the absences obviously won't diminish any time soon. I hope to figure out a less stressful and more organized way to keep track of these sick students, and not become one myself!