Attendance+at+Graderooom+meetings

Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 9:13 AM
 * From: Andrew B**

Subject: Just a concern

Good morning everybody! Gary and I had a great morning watching the documentary “Daddy and Papa” with our Creating Alliances Group. Unfortunately, we started the day as usual - the same student was always absent and the rest of the group was late. Today, we had nobody until 8:15 and eventually they all trickled in. Based on a previous conversation we had at our weekly meeting, we had discussed new expectations for next year: One of them was to have the papers count for CC exclusively. I would like to make another suggestion and that is we include and stress attendance, punctuality, and participation as components to their pass/fail status. I do recognize that one of my biggest pet peeves may be pushing the envelope. However, this has been a consistent case with our group. It is the nature of the beast – a pass/fail class is taken less seriously. Thanks for listening and have a great Monday. Andy B

F**rom: Andy K** Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:53:36 -0600

Conversation: Just a concern Subject: RE: Just a concern

I had the same experience, or actually worse – only 8 of my 16 students showed up. And forget participation – only 2 or 3 really seemed awake. I dismissed them at 8:35 because with only half the group present, and those in the room mostly inert, there was nothing to do. It may be the time of day, it may be the pass/fail, it may be the program design, or it may be that the demands of our common program challenge some pretty basic assumptions and customs about student participation. I’d love to talk more about this.

ak

Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 9:55 AM Subject: RE: Just a concern
 * From: Theresa C**

Andy, I am on board to discuss expectations and requirements for the course. When we take as much time as we do to plan activities for days like this, it is important that the students be here…they get so much more out of the experience and opportunity to actually make the connections we want them to make when they’re fully present. Sounds like we have another item for a summer course workshop…

TC

Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:06:01 -0600 Conversation: Just a concern Subject: RE: Just a concern
 * From: Shanti E**

I’m glad we’re talking about this over email, I think it will help us get a jump start on the conversation in our meeting. I feel that we meet with them so sporadically that it’s hard for them to register how important these meeting times are. I agree with Theresa that over the summer we can make up a good plan for next year, but I also think we need to figure out how to make this time work better for us this semester. Would it help for me to go to Thursday’s graderoom and emphasize the group’s work within the context of Community Action goals and requirements? At tomorrow’s meeting we do need to talk about the retreat, but is seems like we should designate a certain amount of time (15 minutes?) to problem-solving the graderoom attendance and participation issue. shanti

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