Testing

This week my school will testing all of our 11th grade students. They will take the ACT tomorrow, the Work Keys on Wednesday and Thursday will take the Michigan Merrit Exam. Students who are not testing do not have school tomorrow but have half days on Wednesday and Thursday. The half day starts at 11:30 and we have difficulty getting students to come in for a half day. As a result my attendance is usually really low. It's hard to plan for these days. I cannot begin a new lesson or continue on a previous one when so many people will be absent. A lot of teachers show random movies or allow students to work on missing assignments. It makes this whole week almost a waste of instructional time.

So what's a teacher to do with low attendance and students who are bored in their classes? Take them to the lab of course! It is the perfect solution. Students who do not come can make up the time at home. Students who do come will get to do some meaningful math and be engaged in learning on a day that is a waste of learning time in a lot of other classrooms. Myself and another teacher are going to combine our classes so that we may both take advantage of the limited lab space we have. Stead of trying to fill our time with review assignments or meaningless busy work our students will be challenged and working on relevant mathematics. Plus the tutor will help prepare them for their turn to take the test a few years from now.