Influencer Applied to Absenteeism

*Update on 5-24-2018:

Phone calls were made. Meetings were held. The students have returned to regular attendance. Additionally, a few of the students will be attending through the summer.

On a personal level, I feel like this model was successful. However, my professor felt like it was slightly off target. I will be completing another Influencer Model on another topic soon.

Below is the original post from April 29, 2018:

As y'all know, I'm working on my Master's of Education in Digital Learning and Leading. This ePortfolio and blog has been an ongoing aspect of that program. I have loved this program so far! It has been such a great learning experience for me in so many ways! It has been very challenging as well, but in a good way. I have been challenged to think about myself in so many ways and to think about things that I never would have considered before. I have been pushed out of my comfort zone, but I have truly enjoyed it......I know that sounds weird, but it's true.

For this particular class, I have been reading two books: Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change by Grenny, Patterson, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler; and The 4 Disciplines of Excecution by McChesney, Covey, and Huling. These books are not your typical books for an educational degree. They are so much more! They appeal to me in many ways from a personal standpoint, a business owner standpoint, and from an educator standpoint. These books can apply to just about every aspect of life and education.

The focus this past two weeks has been the Influencer book. It has been frustrating me! I've gone from excited to frustrated to stressed to angry. I despise emotional roller coasters. I finally hopped of this roller coaster when I figured out the frustration.

*Sideline notes: I do not teach in a public or private school. I own a tutoring service that caters to the needs of homeschool families. I assist the parents in educating their children. Similar to dance, piano, or karate (or any number of activities), the parents pay for their child's spot whether the child shows up or not.

My frustration was me! I was trying to apply these principals and techniques to my students or their parents. I was trying to figure out what I could get them to do to make a change. Once I figured out that the change needed to come from me, I hopped off the roller coaster. I had to reorient my perspective and look at myself. I had to decide what I could do and what I could change to achieve the desired results. I also had to be clear about the desired results. Though I wanted it to be about the online learning classroom, it wasn't. I had to focus on the 4-walled classroom aspect for now. I had to be able to give up the online learning aspect for these students at this time.

Remember the sideline notes above.......I have a couple of students who are supposed to be attending the 4-walled classroom and completing some assignments online. They are chronologically behind in grade levels according to cultural standards. They are to work on current grade level in the 4-walled classroom and work on 1 subject of the chronologically appropriate grade level online. There are three students in this pilot group. One student is attends regularly in the 4-walled classroom and online. One student attends the 4-walled classroom about 50% of the time, and is neglecting the online classroom. One student is neglecting both the 4-walled classroom and the online classroom. My goal is to get them to return to the 4-walled classroom regularly. The difficult decision that I had to make was to pause the online learning for those 2 students at this time. The decision was not difficult, per say, but it is hard to admit failure. I have failed these two students. Perhaps I expected to much from them......

Once I figured out all of those details, I was able to reorient the spotlight to myself. What exactly do I want to achieve? I want them to maintain their current abilities and strengthen their skills. I want them to be high school graduates. The students are successful when they are in the 4-walled classroom. My goal is to get them to return to regular attendance in the 4-walled classroom. As a result, I completed an influencer model spreadsheet on myself.

These are actions that I can take and that I can control. The tricky part is that I have to thread the needle, so to speak. I need to resolve the attendance issue without offending the parent or student. I have a relaxed environment at De Beau Microschool. I don't usually harass parents about absences because I'm not required to take attendance because I'm not a regular school. I need to push to have the student return to class. However, if I push too hard and offend the parent or student, they could decide that they don't need me anymore. That would result in lost revenue and lost income.

Resources:

J. Grenny, K. Patterson, D. Maxfield, R. McMillan, and A. Switzler. (2013). Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change.