Week of April 15th Disucssion.

 This week started off a little rough. I live in Greensboro North Carolina for the first time since I’ve ever been here, we experienced a  tornado. The tornado hit literally one street over from my house. Luckily I was at work at the time, so I wasn’t there to experience the physical tornado.  When I did finally get home from work, I searched the house and came across a broken window, a few patches in the roof, and some of the metallic siding missing at the top of the roof. I know it may not seem like it, but I was blessed. Houses just the next street over we’re completely destroyed.  We were without power for about for five days, and my Wi-Fi was out for about a week. Now I know the Wi-Fi may not seem like it’s that big of a deal. But for someone like me, who works completely from home, that is a major inconvenience. So I had to spend the entire week searching for different locations to sit in, in order for me to go to work that week. On top of the tornado, my brother had to be hospitalized for a couple of days. His hospitalization had nothing to do with the tornado, just other health issues.  So as you can see this was a very stressful week for me. Nevertheless, I pulled myself together because I knew I had students that were counting on me.

Being completely honest, I had to put this lesson together at the last minute. I was so overwhelmed with the different events of my week, that I let my weekly Wednesday lesson creep up on me. So I was very nervous as I entered class that morning. This lesson was the last lesson of the semester before we start reviewing for the EOC. I still was not able to get the attendance numbers that I'd hope for, but those that did come, gave a high level of participation. The students did very well with the questions I prepared for them.

Next week I plan to make the Live Lesson (LL) mandatory. I really need to do something about the low attendance numbers, esp at such a crucial time of the year. Since next weeks LL is specifically a review of the material needed to pass the benchmark exam leading into the EOCs, I will require the students to attend. I think I may assign this as a quiz grade and allow them to earn extra credit through participation. I haven't decided if I will add the extra credit to the attendance quiz grade or to the benchmark, but I do know there will be an extra credit opportunity. Let's keep our fingers crossed that making the LL mandatory will be the motivation needed to get the students to attend!