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#211
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Family-friendly employers
"Robyn Kozierok" wrote in message ... (snip) A family-friendly employer is a wonderful thing! I made it a priority when job hunting and am forever grateful! I suspect there are few employers more family friendly than the US Federal Government though this may vary a bit from Agency to Agency. -- sharon, momma to savannah and willow (11/11/94) |
#212
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Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?
"Joni Rathbun" wrote in message ... On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, Circe wrote: Well, I agree that the disruption is unfortunate, but I also think it was the teacher's *choice* to delay the material until all the students were in class. The teacher presumably knew what the material was. The teacher presumably could have given the material to the parents of the students who were going to be out and had them impart it to their children. We're not talking about calculus here, are we? We're talking about curriculum for third graders, and I'm sure most parents in affluent schools are perfectly capable of homeschooling third-grade material for a few days. I'm in the middle on all of this. Flexibility must exist on both sides. Both sides are damned if they do and damned if they don't. And we all have examples of responsible behavior and abuses of the system, etc., etc., etc. I think it's the attitude toward what is being taught and how it's being taught that bothers me -- a little. In nearly 20 years of teaching, I've never used a textbook or generated a mass of worksheets to be used. Much of what I've done has been process-based. For example, when we did a multi- class social studies unit on community and government with second graders, we visited all the city government offices, developed our own community, our own government and community infrastructure, court system, etc. Each student played an integral part in our community and government. Their counterparts in the city came to the school on a regular basis to work directly with them. And what we planned for next week was highly dependent upon what happened this week... Not the same thing as working your way from chapter one to chapter two in a textbook. That sort of thing is not easily packaged in a hand-out that can be sent home with parents to duplicate. And that's one reason why I rarely take my daughter out of school for anything but illness (and I just flat out won't send her to school with a fever--I hate it when parents do...) Because her teachers *don't* use a canned curriculum and it's really interesting and involved and my kid *wants* to be there. But our teachers are flexible enough that they have never *once* blinked or seemed like they minded in the least when I *did* take my daughter out early for an afternoon or to extend a weekend for a trip. It's rare... maybe once a year that I take her out for a full day, twice a year that I get her out of school early for something. If her work consisted of worksheets and textbook reading (her classes don't have any textbooks, as far as I know...) as the majority of her education, we wouldn't bother with school at all, period. Jenrose |
#213
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Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?
Circe wrote:
Well, I agree that the disruption is unfortunate, but I also think it was the teacher's *choice* to delay the material until all the students were in class. The teacher presumably knew what the material was. The teacher presumably could have given the material to the parents of the students who were going to be out and had them impart it to their children. We're not talking about calculus here, are we? We're talking about curriculum for third graders, and I'm sure most parents in affluent schools are perfectly capable of homeschooling third-grade material for a few days. Actually, it was more orientation information-- class rules and policies, how to do various class and school specific stuff, assessments that would have been difficult to make up, etc. So it wasn't something the child could make up or the parent could teach, but it was something quite important to the child's ability to navigate the class successfully. The teacher *could* have decided to let those kids sink or swim, but it would have made life very difficult for the students who missed it, not to mention it would have created a headache for the teacher who would have either had to write everything down to send it home, or would have had to take time away from other students to convey the information. And the assessments would have had to be done outside of normal school hours or would have required taking class time away from the other students. IOW, you're blaming parents for a decision that was really made by the teacher. If you were sure that every single absence was the result of an illness or truly justifiable reason, the delay would have been just as disruptive. Absolutely--but we think differently of absences for different reasons! If someone calls you to back out of an engagement, you feel very differently depending on whether they have to go to a relative's funeral or whether they "have" to go to someone else's party. Best wishes, Ericka |
#214
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Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?
"Joni Rathbun" wrote in message ... On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, Belphoebe wrote: "Ericka Kammerer" wrote in message ... I've never heard of you doing anything that I thought was inappropriate. However, while I agree with the idea that people should be flexible on both sides, I also think attendance is a serious thing. I've pretty much had it up to *here* with people who don't place any value on the time of other people than themselves (not saying you're in that camp at all). I do see a bit of a pattern among many people--people who can't be bothered to show up when they say they will at a party, college students who skip classes (and who almost invariably expect you to recount your lecture for them) I teach at the college level, and have also been thinking about this phenomenon as I've read this thread. I've always been very careful to put my attendance policy on my course outline and to explain it on the first day of class. Students get a certain number of "free" absences during the semester, and once that number has been exceeded, their course grade is lowered a certain amount for each "extra" absence. Students do not need to show me doctor's notes or other documentation to prove that they had a legitimate reason to miss class. And bringing such documentation does not "excuse" their absences, so I urge students to save their absences for true emergencies. Students always nod and say they understand all this when I explain it. But then I'll always have students who try to get me to make an exception. "Dear Professor: I will miss class the Friday before and the Monday after spring break, because my flight leaves early and returns late. Please excuse my absence, and let me know if we're doing anything important on those days. Thanks for understanding." It's not unusual for more than half my students to miss class right before and right after a break. I had a student who missed all of her "free" absences, and then was absent on a peer-review day (for a writing class). Missing a peer-review day carried extra penalties--losing points on the final paper. When the student returned for the next class session, she told me that her parents had "kidnapped" her to take her home to celebrate her birthday. What is taught and how it is taught makes a difference. Sadly, many of my college courses were such that you COULD skip and still do very well -- especially at the 100/200 level. It was really a bit of a shock for me back when. I'd have been happy to meet an instructor like you tho after my experiences with the other courses, you might have had to do some convincing Your students today have probably had similar experiences. That said, all my years in college, I only had one professor present an attendance policy. He allowed NO absenses for any reason. He promised to grade down one grade for each day missed. As luck would have it, I had a required art course that required a field trip which would cause me to miss that professor's course one day. I tried to make arrangements. I got a professor from Course B to talk to the professor from Course A. But I still got the B. I didn't think it was fair or appropriate and protested to the powers higher up. My B was changed to an A. I had a professor who said this-no absenses are excused for any reason, and anything missed due to an absense cannot be made up. (I had four classes with this particular person, over my last two years of college) The day of his midterm, I went to student health that morning, because I was feeling just plain lousy and my stomach hurt. The student health doctor looked at me, and told the nurse to drive me to the hospital. (appendicitis) However, when I got there, I wouldn't sign the intake papers, because I HAD to take this guys test (I had a pretty high fever). Finally, she called Prof. Bigshot, and let him know that he had a very ill student who wouldn't sign in to the hospital, because of his test policy. He came over to the hospital to tell me himself that I was excused from the test, and could make it up later. He also made arrangements with all my other professors for me to make up their exams when I got out of the hospital. His syllabus the next year read that "Absenses will be excused ONLY under extreme circumstances, which will be determined on a case-by-case basis"- and when he went over this, he explained that being in the hospital counted as "extreme circumstances". |
#215
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Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?
"Jenrose" wrote in message
s.com... BTW... you can see a summary of our program at http://schools.4j.lane.edu/family/index.html The site just went live today. It looks like a wonderful program. Nice web site too! Vicki |
#216
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Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?
"Joni Rathbun" wrote in message ... I'd have been happy to meet an instructor like you tho after my experiences with the other courses, you might have had to do some convincing Your students today have probably had similar experiences. Having read your other post regarding your own teaching, I can say I wish I'd had a teacher like you in grade school--your approach sounds wonderful. I could understand the frustration you expressed in that post, since I've always done quite a bit of group work in my courses, and missing class makes a difference not only for the student who missed, but for those in his/her group. That said, all my years in college, I only had one professor present an attendance policy. He allowed NO absenses for any reason. He promised to grade down one grade for each day missed. As luck would have it, I had a required art course that required a field trip which would cause me to miss that professor's course one day. I tried to make arrangements. I got a professor from Course B to talk to the professor from Course A. But I still got the B. I didn't think it was fair or appropriate and protested to the powers higher up. My B was changed to an A. I've always understood that emergencies do happen, so I'd never insist on a zero-absence policy. -- Belphoebe |
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