Attendance, part 2 - 159

Attendance, part 2 - Paying attention and following up.

This is a continuation of episode 158 where I talked about the importance of taking attendance. I have seen adults take forever to determine if all kids are in class or not. You do not want it to waste instructional time. During that episode, I had my 3 Don'ts and 4 Do's and then gave my 4 Final Thoughts.

I review those today or you can go back to 158 to hear more.

My focus for this episode though is to connect taking attendance with something that nobody may ever say that you need to do this but you need to. This content fits well with Not My Job parts 1 and 2 (episodes 155 and 156). Because whether you are told to or not it is part of your job. It is part of your responsibility as the classroom teacher.

You need to pay attention and follow up.

When kids are absent, don't just mark them absent, create a reminder to connect with the child when he returns. This means that when the next day arrives and the kid is not in school you now remember that he was absent the day before. When you hit two days, that day you should call home. Say, "Hey, I noticed that Steve was out for two days and I was hoping all was ok."

Sounds simple enough but you will hear me tell you a story about a child who is able to skip school and nobody paid attention or followed-up.

After listening, I hope that you recognize that you need to pay attention and follow-up.

Length - 22:44