Last year in the collective wisdom of our staff, we nominated tardiness as the as the number one problem at our school. I hope that with our collective efforts we have made some gains toward solving this monumental problem.
Assuming we are going to do this again this year, I would like to nominate student preparedness as a number one issue and encourage others to think about it. I know that when I was at uf, the general idea preached in education was you cannot do anything about a kid who shows with no pencil, and the idea was, if they show up empty handed, give them a book, give them a pencil, paper no problem. I practiced that for about 6 years here at phs.
But now, I don’t think it is that simple. The kid who shows up with nothing but a cell phone, has no intention of doing well in school, is not planning on success and has their priorities skewed. Their attitude needs to change.
For example, yesterday I made a parental signature sheet worth 20 points extra credit. In a class where no one has a stellar grade, I had 3 returned. If kids can’t do something that simple, are they studying?
Perhaps this problem is isolated to my class. But it seems if there were consequences in all classes for this type of attitude and lack of preparedness, students would at least have some sense of shame when confronted with their lack of preparedness.
I appreciate your time and consideration…..
Krister Bjorn
