Catching Up (The Stretch!)

Shane was *supposed* to do some school work each day on the cruise.

It didn't happen.

He hadn't missed a day of school before the cruise, but with five days off in a row the work accumulated. We got an email from his English Teacher.

I hope this email finds you well. I am reaching out to you because upon Shane's return to school, he told me that he has not completed any of the work while he was out. He needs to finish reading the novel "Call of the Wild' and complete the comprehension checks located on Schoology. In order for Shane to complete this novel before break, he will need to read at home. He is on Chapter 3 and there are 7 chapters.  I had given the novels out to each student the week after Thanksgiving, but Shane says he doesn't have his. Could you please have him look at home for it as I have no more copies. I will exempt Shane from the week 2 packet, but he still needs to complete the week 1 packet and the work for this week.

If he is unable to complete this work before break, he is welcome to work on it over break, as no more class time will be devoted to it upon our return in January. I do not assign work over break, but students are welcome to work on incomplete assignments if they choose.

Thank you for your support from home and if you have any questions, please reach out to me.

Yup. The scramble began Monday! 

My goal was for Shane to realize as long as he did something each day he'd work his way out of the hole. If he got overwhelmed and refused to start? Nothing would happen.

I forced the issue and we did 30 mins to an hour each night to catch up. It took about a week. 

I was happy that Shane actually asked me for some help with math work to catch up. I've offered to help him many a time, but this was the first he's taken me up on it. He complained some that he's not good at math (ha!), but it's more like he's accustomed to understanding it immediately and putting effort in to study is a foreign concept. They were going over proportions and I was able to help him catch up quickly. He's a smart kid.