In conformity to the school’s “Handbook for Students and Parents” (pp 40-41), the policy for missed homework assignments will be: an after-school detention (without a demerit) and ten points off the grade.
Today was still a lot of preparation and ground-building for the semester. We started class by discussing the DVD on Jesus’ life which the class viewed yesterday. The conversation was engaging and helpful in seeing what the students received and understood. After this discussion, I asked the class to move their chairs into a “Horseshoe” format. We’ll be trying this arrangement for the next couple of weeks. It’s my hope that the format will lend itself to more involvement by the students in class question-and-answer and discussion. After moving the chairs, each student was given their own copy of “The Catholic Youth Prayer Book.” They’ve been asked to mark page 124, and to “personalize” their prayer book over the next couple of weeks. Perhaps they can use pictures, drawings, signatures of friends, etc. The goal is that the prayer book truly becomes “theirs.” After we viewed the prayer book, the homework assignment was collected. It was disappointing that four students did not have their assignment. They’ve been asked to bring it in tomorrow. If they do not have their assignment tomorrow, they will be given an after-school homework detention. At the end of class today, the students were given letters for their parents (a basic syllabus of the course). There is a signed portion of the letter that has to be returned tomorrow.
