AFTER SCHOOL TUTORIAL

I haven't figured out if I've gotten lazy, or if I have just decided to spend my time more efficiently. First semester I stayed after school almost every single day for after school tutorial. I told my students that I would be there up to five each day. Very few of my students actually came to tutorial. When no students came, it was not completely a waste of time - I was able to grade papers, etc., but I could have done that in the comfort of my own home, and my work day would not seem so long.

This semester, since afterschool tutorial for the state tested subjects (I don't teach any of those) have begun, I told my students that I would do after-school tutorial by appointment only. This actually made sense for more than one reason. One, on many afternoons, I will need time to meet with people to try to set up a job for next year! Second, my school has this new thing where teachers have to walk down to the auditorium after school to "pick up" their students to take them back to the classroom for tutoring. It didn't make a whole lot of sense for me to walk downstairs to the opposite end of the building to find that no student needed my help on most days.

I also told my students that I would not tutor them unless they can show me notes from the lesson they need help with. Many of my students had begun to daydream in class with the assurance that they could get the missed information after school. Not any more! My voice is a commodity, and I have been stressing it out lately (by the end of the day, it is usually very weak). I refuse to have to do things twice just because a student doesn't do what he/she is supposed to in class.