Day 26: "New" Student

Today I welcomed a "new" student to my class.  I say "new" because she is not new to the school, just to my class.  Let me explain.

My school has a group of students who travel to their countries of origin over the summer.  Sometimes they do not return until after the school year begins.  This particular student was on my roster for the beginning of the year, but she could not be dropped from my class roll until she missed so many days.  At that point, she was withdrawn with the understanding that when she returned she would be registered as a re-entry and added back to my roll.  She was added yesterday and joined my class today.

So where to begin?  The parents would like me to send home all of the missed work (for a month's time).  A family friend was supposed to pick up the work on a weekly basis to send, but never came.  This child has missed 25 days of school work.  In those 25 days, she has missed 25 daily edits, 40-plus pages of the math workbook, 30-plus pages of the reading workbook, six weeks of spelling activities and tests, four comprehension quizzes, one reading unit test, four writing projects, one math unit test, half of unit two in math, one unit of social studies, 10-plus writing journals, and numerous hands-on activities.  Now I need to figure out what the most vital pieces of information are so she can be somewhat caught up with the rest of the class.  I started with the daily edits today.  The rest will just have to trickle through in the next few weeks.

Even though she is not new to the school, she is new to my class, which means the routines have to start all over again.  My class was really helpful today in trying to get her acclimated to everything, but you know how little kids are.  They don't quite understand the term "overkill."  I tried to warn them yesterday before dismissal by telling them to remember that today was her first day and she will already be overwhelmed with all of the things that come with a typical first day of school.  Some of them got it.  Some of them didn't in their eagerness to help.

Tomorrow's another day.  Hopefully we didn't scare her off!