At two of the three high schools I’ve worked at in New York, the teachers have been requested to put together “packets” of work that students who are failing the course can complete and then get credit for the course. It’s meant to be sort of a crash (independent study) course. Whether I agree with this policy or not, I need to put these packets together. To earn credit for my class, I require the student to complete every project of the semester. Putting together a packet of that size is a tremendous amount of work and takes a lot of time. Just printing and photocopying the work could take an hour.
Fortunately, last year I created a blog for my classes where I post all assignments. This includes PDF versions of handouts, PowerPoint presentations and rubrics, as well as links to videos and other resources. I originally created the blog as a resource for students who might be absent for a day or two during a week or two-week project. But now, instead of creating packets for failing students, I refer them to the blog.
Do you have to create packets? How do you do it?
Do you have a class blog? What do you use it for?
The Balanced Teacher 