Mid morning…urgent email from downtown. ‘The system shows that you are missing attendance days. Please fix this by 1pm!’ I look at the clock. It is 11:30am. Not going to happen. There are no fewer than forty students listed…students with random names, random levels, random dates. There is a neat chart included in the email with all the attendance codes I can use.
These are my choices: P-present, in person, P-async-remote, P-sync-remote, A-unexcused-absent-in person, A-unexcused-remote, A-excused-absent-remote, A-excused-absent-in person, A-alt-alternative special, T-tardy-excused remote, T-tardy-excused-in person, T-unex-unexcused remote, T-unex-tardy-unexcused in person. I look at the ceiling.
If there were a gun held to my head, I would not have an answer to this mess. I dig around for a bit, finding a different chart where I am informed all of this can be fixed. I click on the link and wait. Nothing. What was to be clicked, remains grey and un-clickable.
I send off a polite email informing downtown that I am unable to change anything on the chart. Silence.
I send one more polite email indicating that this correction is highly unlikely to happen today, and certainly not by 1pm. The chart remains grey and un-clickable. Silence.
Much later in the day, an email arrives from downtown thanking me for attending to this matter and for fixing the problem. Everything is now in order and in the system.
I look back up at the ceiling.
690 Saint Paul 