How do you take attendance for your virtual classes?

MrTempest

MrTempest

Comrade
How do you take attendance? Our school has a wacky way of taking attendance right now and I was looking for some ways to keep tabs on attendance for my own records.
 
I just have my roster up in one window and my Google Meet up in the other. While the kids are doing bell work, I mark who is not there. I have them alphabetized by last name in my Meet, so it's really easy and fast. I tried doing things like an attendance question on Google Classroom, but some kids knew I would post it and would just answer the question and log off without ever even coming into the Meet. So I stopped making extra work for myself.
 
If you have access to Google Forms, my school uses them on a daily basis to keep an eye on students' well-being. Send me a message if you want our template.
 
If they show up for any length of time I mark them present for that half of the day. I have a few kids who are effectively absent every day but log in and at least attempt to join, they just have crappy internet.

I’m also supposed to contact parents if they miss more than 2 days in a row, but my class is huge and I just... don’t. I have a few I need to contact because they’re not usually absent. But otherwise... I have the same 3 or 4 kids gone daily and I know why they’re gone and nagging parents doesn’t make any difference, so I mark them absent and move on. 2 have terrible internet, 1 just doesn’t care to come (though he does show up long enough for me to mark him present), and one’s mom is 100% done with remote learning and she just gets mad when I text.

sorry, ranting. But yeah. If they show up, I mark them present.
 
I ended up finding a google forms document where I can take my own attendance. The problem is that in our district we only take attendance once first thing in the morning in advisement. After they are marked present they are marked present for all of their classes for the day. It did not take long for many students to realize they could check in with their advisement teacher and then just go back to bed and still be marked present.
 
Virtual: Count everyone present. If nobody has had any contact with the kid all week, we go back into the attendance program and mark them as “non-participated”.

Hybrid: Same as above for virtual kids. Hybrid counted just like regular school day.
 
Google forms work well, and you can also create a spreadsheet and organize your data from the form. Google also timestamps, so if my students complete the form outside of classtime, then don't show up for class, they are absent.
 
I have a paper register for each class. As the kids join I tick them off. The school operates a master live spreadsheet for all grades. When I get 5 minutes I access the powerpoint and mark all absences for my lessons. Someone higher up the food chain then looks for patterns of absence etc and chases them up. All lessons are recorded and saved. I always ask each kid to say 'Hi' in the chat as they arrive as this is also recorded and will act as a check should their attendance ever be in dispute.
 
I don't trust the fact that they are simply signed on, so there is a question of the day that I ask, and as I run through the attendance rolls, I need to get an answer to a different question for each class/meeting. I also ask for cameras on during class to promote the feeling of a live class. I don't expect perfection, but classes, at least at the HS level, need to be involved to be effective. It enhances learning for all of the students IMHO.
 
I take a screenshot of them and then plug in my attendance. Being present, of course, doesn't mean they are participating or active. I really try to monitor both.
 
We run a nationwide virtual private online school named Watinwell Academy so we do not need to take attendance, however, we monitor the log in periods and make sure they are consistent with the IP address the student signed up with, we also plan to implement a proctor monitoring system during exams.
 
I like simple google tables. When my meeting is starting I ask my students to check their names in google table and write +
 
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