Problem or Opportunity?

I find that it's important for me to occasionally take a step back. I need to remember the nature of this program - we are an alternative program. To be considered for enrollment these young people need to be what our school board calls "early leavers" - when I went to school they would have been called "dropouts". Regardless of the name, the fact remains that my students are my students precisely because they have  not had success at school before.

Now granted, most Turning Point students have known success at school in the past, in that they were able to complete at least two-thirds of their diploma before coming to us. In generalities, a Turning Point student is not the most in need - most have moderately stable homes, most are not hungry or worried about where they're going to sleep tonight. But almost all of them have had problems coming to school for periods in their lives. Whether the cause was employment, family responsibilities, mental or physical health - a lot of my students have had and may still have difficulty attending school with regularity.

 Of course, our programming reflects this. Turning Point curriculum is delivered in chunks, and our learning environment is 'self-paced'. As long as students are progressing (attending regularly, or at least submitting work for assessment and meeting with teachers regularly) then how and where they do their work is not important to us.

And here's where I will finally make my point. One problem I've noticed with the tablet project is the inability for students to do any work on these assignments from home. Now, we're not a correspondence program, but we like to give the opportunity for some of our students to start an assignment with a teacher in class, and to have the option of finishing up at home (or wherever they choose). I didn't consider this until I asked a student why he never did any of the newer (iPad based) assignments. "Because I can't take it home to finish it" he said. Simple. He wanted portability in his assignment. Too bad? 21st century gone too far? Maybe. But our goal is to help this young man graduate, and these assignments likely won't be part of that effort.

Now, as the post's title accurately points out - this 'problem' could also be an opportunity. We are also a college preparation program, and the idea that sometimes school has to be a priority is an important lesson for these students to learn. Sometimes you have to go to school - if you want to be successful with it - and so, an assignment that not only demands, but perhaps even entices a reluctant attender to come to school, well that's something - isn't it?

I'm currently working on some HIGH INTEREST assignments using the pad, hoping to woo these would be truants to come to class. And if there are still too many barriers for some to make it in regularly, then we will tackle that problem another day.

Anyone else have stories about technology (or any other 'lure') successfully drawing non-attenders to school? I've had good results with food in the past as well.