Ferris Bueller famously took a day off way back in the 80's. Ferris wasn't the first student to play hookie, nor will he be the last.
Unfortunately, we aren't all living in a hilarious 80's flick (even though it would be AWESOME). Missing school isn't all stolen hot rods, trips to museums, and parade-float hopping. Every time a student is absent from school he/she is losing vital instructional hours. And what if that same student is chronically absent? Even more hours lost.
We have decided, here at Silver Run, that attendance is a problem that we would like to try to fix. Our old ways of catching students up after they have been out just hasn't worked. We tried "While You Were Out folders, we sent work home with siblings, we have parents come collect work. Thos alternatives have NOTHING on having the students in the classroom everyday. We would really like to decrease the number of our students that are absent at all.
Teachers have accepted the mission happily! Many have created in-class attendance policies and procedures. They presented students with the guidelines and also some incentives to having perfect attendance. The really cool part is many teachers have created visual displays to keep the students engaged in tracking their attendance. I wanted to use this blog post to highlight some of the visuals that you can see around Silver Run.
The RtI Team (Ms. Upham, Mrs, Dragotta, Mrs. Fralick, Mrs. Merki, Mrs. Drastal, and Mrs. Vai) is showing an octupus outside of their classroom. The grade level tentacles grow with perfect attendance!
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| A tentacle close-up. |
Mrs. Renzi's students keep track of their attendance and other classroom data using their data tracker folders. Each days', weeks', and months' is also tracked and displayed.
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| Mrs. Renzi's data tracker wall |
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| Daily Attendance |
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| Weekly and monthly attendance. |
Mrs. Ismail is tracking attendance inside of her room, and outside is displaying the number of late arrivals and early dismissals. There is also a reminder that "Every minute counts for student success".
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| Right outside of Mrs. Ismail's classroom. |
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| Attendance data being displayed Mrs. Ismail's classroom. |
The 4th and 5th grade Resource Room Teachers (Mrs. Martinez and Mrs. Johnson) are lending a hand to increase attendance too!
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| Hands are moved when a student is absent. Hand on the board at the end of the marking period=prize! |
