Anatomy of a Makeup Test & Stimulus Package

So you were absent on test day...cue dramatic trombone (you know, wah wah)...for whatever reason: Sickness, family, local sports team championship parade, whatever. So what happens now? Do you get a grand reprieve of having to take the test later than everyone else?!?!?! Let's explore what happens when you are absent on test day (let's say test day was a Monday).

1. You come into school next day (Tuesday) and say "Hey Mr. C, when can I make up that test?"
2. Mr. C, automatically knowing your schedule from memory (like he does for all 112 of his students) says "How about during lunch?"
3. Your response, "Well, I am making up a Psych quiz then, and I have a chem lab to makeup during study hall, and it's a full moon, and I have band practice, then I work, then I have basketball, then I have fun time, so how about Friday?
4. After much debate and discussion of schedules, you get the great idea to make it up after school. Now the after school makeup is tricky.

• Mr. C needs to bring YOUR test to the math planning center
• He must also remember to bring your formula sheet
• He must inform his colleagues that there is a test in his mailbox for this one exceptional student
• Student takes test in a hallway - great testing environment
• Student could conceivably take 85 minutes to take test
• Mr. C checks his mailbox the next day, and puts your test into his makeups to grade

Now multiply this process by 10 students (that is how many missed last week's test). Is this not insanity? From a management standpoint, I got kids coming left and right to make up tests. Can we make everyone's life easier and just not be absent on test day?

Onto the stimulus package. Our current US president is now traveling the country to "sell" the stimulus package to different communities. Most view this as, "Hey, what a cool guy! He is so relatable. He's going to come around and tell us exactly what is in it, and how it's good for us." Didn't we elect this guy to act on our behalf? That is to say, does he NEED to sell it to us? He is our president, we have put our faith in him to act in the best interest of the country, why must he travel the nation to sell this to us? The fact that there is a feeling that it needs to be sold should raise some eyebrows from all citizens, not just the hardcore conservatives.

If anyone has an itemization of what is in this stimulus package, can you e-mail me where it can be found, or post it as a comment here? I have a cool activity we can do with it as a class. I'd like to break this thing down.

-Mr. C