Last week, I had arranged for a sub for a planned absence. Two days before, the substitute stopped by to check in on what the day would look like so I gave her a rundown. She then proceeded to give me (and my students) such a sweet compliment, that when she's subbed for me earlier in the year, students knew what to do and were great to sub for. At this point in the year, students are ready to engage in the work. AND, coming off a year of distance learning where they were independent learners EVERY DAY, many students are ready and able to work independently for an hour here and there. Are they perfect? Absolutely not. BUT, they do pretty darn great for 15 year olds.
Students do well when the know what it looks like to do well and when we create routines and structures in our classrooms (and school) that lead to success. Teaching is hard because we have to be "on" all the time. We have to pay attention and be alert to our classroom, continuously reinforcing the routines, behaviors and such that will ensure students will be successful. My students don't do well because I just make tests easy or help them through questions during a test. They do well because they know what is expected of them and they rise to the occasion. My expectations are HIGH, and they reach them. This doesn't mean I'm constantly nit-picking every small act/mistake/misbehavior, but that I capitalize on routines and habits and reinforce them. The goal is not to never look at your phone, for instance; the goal is to be able to look at your phone for a moment, then get back to work. You might have a bad/off day, but the goal is to do your best that day and keep striving to do better. Conversely, when I see routine behaviors by a student that are not in line with what leads to success in my class, I follow up, reaching out, trying to remedy the problem.
This is true for entire school systems. We need to be "on" reinforcing good behaviors and keeping our expectations high. It's ok to be tardy here and there, but are you tardy ALL the time? Then we've got a break down in the adults in the system and missed out on creating structures that reinforce behaviors we hope to see.
Do we value students being in class? Then we need to show that value by creating expectations of being in class, creating accountability when the expectations are not reached repeatedly. Students are ready to rise to the expectations we place upon them with the proper support, but if we don't reinforce our expectations, then what?
Additionally, reinforcement can't just be stating the expectations over and over again. We need to walk the walk, and model the way. We also need to talk to individuals, instead of just hollering into the void. Not every kid needs to be reminded of being to class on time. One-on-one conversations are so important and 100% necessary.
When I was Dean of Students and would talk to students who were sent out of class, I always had to weigh the rights of the student with that of the class as a whole. That student's right to an education is important, but so are the rights of the other 29 students in that class. I called it maintaining the integrity of the classroom. We valued the ability for the whole class to learn on any given day. If a student was impeding the right of others to learn, it might require them to miss an opportunity for them to learn that day. Additionally if the student is getting in their own way to learn, that also warrants a pause. This cannot be 100% on the teacher to do that work because, again, you are now pulling them away from the other 29 students.
If we value ALL students learning, we need to show that and start expecting all students to be in class, expecting all students to put their phones away so they can engage in the learning, AND recognizing when this isn't happening and do something about it.
This year, I don't see us doing something about it. I don't see us expecting all students to be in class. I feel like a frazzled teacher who doesn't have support in keeping expectations high. I feel like kids are slipping fast and there's no one there to catch them. It's slowly breaking me.
