Absentee in Distress

Need a sick day? You’re probably better off attending school. One day at home will cost you two weeks dedicated to making up missed work.

Anyone taking advanced classes will tell you staying home from school will put you so far behind to the point where its almost not worth it. But what if you don’t have a choice? What if you were forced to stay home from school for over a week?

Just last week I had to get surgery to get my tonsils out. They told me I was going to have to miss over a week of school. So, to minimize my absence, I scheduled the surgery right before Thanksgiving break. After all, if you take as many advanced classes as I do, you know missing even just one day of school will put you far behind. A week prior to my surgery, I told all of my teachers I was going to be out for a little while, and of course I explained why. They all pretty much said something along the lines of “I hope you feel better” and “eat lots of ice cream”. While that was nice, I don’t think they realized my purpose in telling them. I was trying to give them enough time to give me the work I would need before I left to prevent myself from falling too far behind, not to have a quick chit chat with them.

To a certain extent I understand it can be challenging to collect every piece of work and give it to me in time, but what I don’t understand is why some teachers didn’t provide me with anything to work with.

Now, I am sitting at home in excruciating pain and the only thing I’m concerned with is how the heck I am going to get all of my work and complete it before I go back to school. So, instead of resting like I was suppose to, I now had to get on the computer and email all of my teachers to figure something out.

For a class like AP Lang, it wasn’t as challenging to collect my work because almost everything we do is online through google classroom and Sisyphean High. I was able to read about what I needed to do and my teacher was kind enough to give me enough time to do it. But that is only one of five classes. What about the rest?

I would say the hardest class to catch up in is math. There’s more notes, quizzes, and tests in that class than there are in any other class really. However, I understand that it is hard to communicate online in regards to a math class in comparison to other classes, such as AP Lang. This bring me back to why I told my teacher a week in advance.

Perhaps I could have benefitted from a day or two of notes. I would have had enough time to let the material sink in, but at the same time I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with work while I tried to recover. Something. Anything really. If my teacher gave me anything it could have drastically lessened my workload for when I returned to school.

Sure, in total I had two weeks off. Two weeks to watch TV and eat ice cream. But as soon as it got down to the last few days, it hit me. My stress level quickly returned to its highest point (which is considered normal for a student like me) and I started cramming whatever work I could get my hands on. My goal was to lessen my workload, not do it properly. If only my teachers had provided me with the littlest bit of work to do, I wouldn’t be as overwhelmed as I am today, on my first day back to school.

How do we fix this?

There are many solutions to this problem with the most obvious being, if a student goes out of their way to warn you about their absence, maybe take the time to collect at least SOME of their work. The most ideal situation would be giving it to them a day or two early. That would give them enough time to start it before they were absent for a reason such as surgery. Or, have the student pick a friend to collect their work. That way they can find a day to sit down with them and teach the new material.

But maybe we need to think bigger. Maybe classes should consider the flipped classroom. While, as I mentioned before, math class is one of those classes where getting work in advance is harder for teachers to do, it is actually proven that math teachers use the flip classroom more than any other subject.

I do understand flipped classroom doesn’t always work for everyone. Some may think of it as a fantastic idea in that they will always have access to their work, but you also might get those students that don’t see a purpose in coming to school anymore. They may see the idea of a flipped classroom as a way to sit comfortably in their home while learning the same material as everyone else.

But to what extent will that benefit us in the future? It won’t. If we don’t learn the skills of face-to- face communication, public speaking through presentations, and participating in class discussions, how will we ever get anywhere in life? These are basic life skills the flipped classroom could potentially take away from us if the students see it as a substitute for coming to school.

All teachers need to accept the fact that the ways of the world, specifically teaching, are changing. Doing lessons on a projector just isn’t gonna fly forever. Through the technology we are provided with today, we are given so many opportunities. But it’s up to us to take them.