Motivation

Report cards are quickly coming, and I had a lot of students failing because they don't do their work. My classroom policy is that they can turn in late work for full credit (the reason being because I want them to learn the material and know that they won't be penalized for needing the extra time). Well, even with this policy my students' still arn't turning in their work (laziness is what it is). So I guess my question is: does anyone have any ideas on how to motivate high school juniors/seniors to do their HW?

FCAT

Well, FCAT is quickly approaching and the math portion of the FCAT will be given on the computer (oohhhh boy). For the last few weeks, I have been sending my juniors and seniors (who have not passed the FCAT) to the computer lab to practice. In the computer lab, there is an instructor that watches over the kids to make sure that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing (practicing FCAT). Come to find out, my kids (and other teachers kids too), are either: 1) not showing up when I send them to the computer lab (wondering the halls skipping), 2) playing video games on the internet, or 3) guessing at the FCAT answers because the computer will eventually tell you the answer anyway. At this point, all I could do is talk with the computer lab teacher and remind her of her job (to make sure my kids are on task), BUT, nothing has changed. I've even spoken with my kids about the importance of being on task while in the computer lab (and still nothing has changed). Let's just say that I am very fearful for this new computerized FCAT and I have a feeling that this is going to hurt a lot of schools. Anyone else having these issues? 

Senior-itis

I don't know about your kids, but my seniors (and even some juniors) have caught the famous Senior-itis bug. Once their counselor had confirmed that they had enough credits to graduate, they completely shut down. However, I must say that I am very proud of myself: because last Monday, I called each-and-every one of those student's parents, and had them put in mandatory after school tutoring. So it is now two days later (after all those phone calls), and my students have started to do work again. It's amazing what parents and mandatory tutoring can do :-)