Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2005 4:02
PM
Subject: TEACHSOC: late arrivals
Hi all...
Here's the down side of a small class -- having
more than half the class enter the room 15 minutes late! In a class of
25, 5 slipping in late is annoying -- in a class of 10, with only 8 in
attendance on a particular day, 5 walking in late is totally disrupting to the
flow of the class.
What do I do to stop this from happening
again?
Unfortunately, the students are
playing you. Start the class on time. Give
beginning of class quizzes or something important to do within a specific time
period. Do not give make ups for those coming in late. Count
attendance as part of the grade and subtract points for those who come in late
(after 10 minutes or so) and for those who saunter in 15-20 minutes, tell them
that they are present in person but as far as the roll is concerned, they are
absent that day. After all, tell them that they are adults and
they can come in late all they want. But that does not mean that you will
accept their lateness nor do you
have to recognize them that day as persons who attended the class on time for
the entire class period, which is the contract they made when
they signed up for the class. Betcha the
game playing will drastically decrease.
Walter Dean
