3 Effective Classroom Systems for Managing Tardy Students, Missed Cooking Labs, and Absent Work
You know the feeling of like your ducks aren’t even close to being in a row. It feels like whack-a-mole trying to put out little fires left and right. And usually it’s not even lunch.
What are those little, but repetitive tasks that seem to throw you off you A game?
Likely it’s students who are tardy- especially first hour, absent students who missed a cooking lab, and those absent students who need their absent work.
Putting in place strong classroom systems not only makes these tasks easier for you, but also simple for your students. When your students know the system, it makes your job easier. It’s a win-win.
Tardy students
At least in my building, first hour students are notoriously late. It was the same way when I taught elementary.
This system works two ways. Usually tardy students come to 1st hour with a paper pass. If students arrive later in the day, their pass comes virtually through E-Hallpass.
Attendance questions is the system I use for attendance. I almost never forget and if I do, students will remind me. The attendance question is on my “Daily Slide” on the projector screen
Having this classroom system in place means my attendance is complete within the first 5-6 minutes of class. If a student arrives tardy, they are expected to write their name on the tardy slip (1st hour) or on a post-it note, the hour, and write TARDY. I keep a stack of Post-It’s near my computer keyboard.
How does this save you time?
Rather than stopping a lesson, pausing your thought, or interrupting a discussion, students can solve the problem.
Students know to write their name on the Post-It, the hour, and Tardy. Since this is located next to my keyboard, which is where I take attendance, I am reminded to change the attendance tag when I have a moment back at my computer.
Absent for a cooking lab?
It is an unfortunate day to miss a cooking lab. It is also inconvenient when you’re the teacher.
In some science classrooms, I know they have students come in to complete the lab. This doesn’t always work with food or time constraints.
As a way to help this problem, I use the system of reminders. These reminders are in my syllabus, posted on my Canvas homepage, and emailed to students.
In fact, I have it clearly posted and don’t take the time to explain it when emailing students. When a student emails they were absent or will be absent on a cooking lab day, I always reply with “There is a ‘Absent for a Cooking Lab?’ button on my Canvas home with all the information about missed points“.
If a student missed a lab, it is marked as “missing” in the only gradebook, which also means a zero.
On that page in Canvas, there are 2 directives for students and students must choose one to change their grade. The first option- Students can be exempt from one cooking lab. They must send an email in the friendly letter format asking for an exemption and the name of the lab.
If they are exempt, they do not need to complete the reflection on the day after the lab either. With 6 sections and roughly 150 kids, I tell students I don’t have time to play detective. An exemption will excuse them from the assignment and it doesn’t help or hurt their grade.
The second option is that students can complete the lab at home. I have a Google Doc linked that will create a forced copy. This will give them a template with a set of questions, what kind of pictures to add from their at-home cooking lab, and a quick reflection. When they are finished, they will share this and I will update their grade.
I make it very clear for students they must email to change their grade. There are too many students and too many absences to keep up if they are not proactive and accountable for their missed lab.
This is also a life skill and we are in the business of reinforcing life skills.
The spring semester is always hard with scheduling cooking labs and various school events. For this reason, I always tell students who will be gone due to track, choir, field trips, etc they must email in the friendly letter format asking to be exempt and reminding me why they are absent.
Too busy talking to do this? It’s likely you have a zero since the lab was marked missing and you’ll need to email me to update your grade.
With around 150 students, I don’t always remember who is in track on the A team or B team, who is also in choir, who was gone for the yearbook field trip, and so on.
Absent and late work
Absent and late work has always made my eye twitch. Maybe you understand?
Moving from elementary to secondary, it just wasn’t the same when students missed work. I knew I needed a strong system to make it easier on students, including myself.
The elementary teacher in me is very explicit when finding information. If you think, your students have 7-8 different teachers in a day and each one has a different way of doing things in their classroom.
I needed to simplify finding information and this takes away from me solving the problem.
The “Daily Slide” is posted on the projector screen each day. Students are trained to remind me if I forgot to put it up when they’ve entered the room. This is a Google Slides presentation. I add a new slide each day to the top of the slide deck.
Since the top slide is the one to see first, it’s also embedded at the bottom of my Canvas homepage. Students can scroll through and find the day they missed. They can see each day for the entire semester if needed.
In addition to this, I also set up modules. Per student feedback in previous semesters, they preferred modules set up by unit- cooking, sewing, etc. rather than by week.
In the module, I can add the date and the necessary links. This way information is clearly posted and available when they need it.
When students need a paper, whether missing work or absent, they know the extra pages are on the table with student supplies.
Students are also trained to send an email in the friendly letter format when submitting missing work with the assignment name. If the email says something along the lines of “I turned in my missing work” I will respond asking for the names of the assignments.
If parents email about their child turning in missing work, I quickly check my inbox. If there isn’t an email from their child with the assignment names, I let them know my classroom expectation. I also let them know it’s an important life skill for their child to be able to communicate, which is why it’s a classroom expectation. It becomes a bit harder for a parent to argue about this expectation because I have explained how it helps their child.
That’s not to say I haven’t exchanged several emails with the same parent over the course of the semester, that no, I have not received an email from their child about missing work.
My time is valuable, especially that my personal time outside of school. For this reason, I will not be searching for missing or absent work that was submitted and expect a student to email with the assignment name.
I remind students over and over. It’s also a blurb posted on my “Daily Slide”. I still remind students over and over, but it sticks.
While these systems are not fool-proof, it does make it easier when you can direct students to a specific place to find information.
Think about where you can digitally house your constant reminder situations. When you notice repeat questions about the same topic, save yourself the time and energy by creating a system. I promise it will work!
When students ask about the situation, instead of taking the time to solve the problem for them, remind students where they can find the information and allow them to solve them problem by themselves.
Passing the expectation over to them not only saves your energy, but helps strengthen your students’ problem-solving and life skills, which is ultimately our main goal!
Looking for another way to get organized with your class budget and more?
Here is how I stay organized with classroom spending and budget. This FREE resource has 5 semester essentials to help keep the “behind the scenes” systems organized. If this sounds like something you need, drop your email here and get the essentials straight to your inbox.