Within the last two weeks I have been meeting with students with at-risk attendance. These are students who I feel will fall through the cracks if no one intervenes. Last week was the first week I met with the students. There were 12 students I had planned on meeting with at the time. I met with 9 of the 12 students. I sat down with them and told them why I was meeting with them, asked them if there was anything I could do to help them, let them know that I was going to keep an eye on their attendance and that I would be meeting with them weekly. It is funny how they responded to me checking in on them. I had not expected really any reactions. What I got was students whose faces lit up at my checking in on them weekly. I know...they are high school students and their faces don't light up, but they really did!
I met with the same students this week and there was improvement in their attendance. I know these numbers will seem alarming to you, but when I first met with the 9 students they had a total of 98 absences all together from the beginning of the year (11 weeks). This is an average of 8.9 absences per week for the group. This week those 9 students had averaged only 7 absences! Five of the students had ZERO absences, two students had 1 absence, one had 2 absences and another had 3 absences! The BEST part; one student asked for peer tutoring and another asked me to help her with college/career planning!!
This week I did have to add students to my attendance list, but hopefully they will soon see improvement as well!
I am keeping a spreadsheet to track their weekly attendance/absences. When I met with them today and congratulated and high-fived them, they smiled. I loved it! My hope is that these students realize someone cares and they continue to improve their attendance, their grades and their self-confidence.
