What happens when it's tough love again

I felt that I should clarify after the last post when I took on the responsibility of remembering that kids aren't done growing, and how that's okay.

Lest anyone (including myself) think that students shouldn't or can't behave to an exceptional high (as in, decent human) standard of behavior. Because they can. Oh, they can. And they will.

Our principal recently sent out an email to all the teachers and staff about 1) how our eighth graders are suffering from senioritis (I did not know there was a middle school version of this. There is. There is. Oh there is.) and 2) how the sixth and seventh graders (i.e., little people) are suffering from spring fever (I did very much know there was a version of this for every human being). She encouraged us to revisit in our practice the routines and procedures we set in place in September, as well as the care with which we enforced them.

Wait, September?

If there were a line for people who have forgotten, misplaced, discarded, or casually watched die the procedures they set in place in September, I would all ten of my toes fully over that line.

In place of student-led, student-accountable procedures, my classroom has The Timer. This lovely little device didn't arrive in my classroom via Target until December. I think. And it changed everything. Because while I couldn't get students to move quickly through entry routines and transitions, The Timer could. The Timer would mark how long students had to stay into break. The Timer marked in ten-second intervals how many grammar sheets students would have to complete (I'm a little ambivalent/ ashamed about that one still). The Timer motivated students when I couldn't and they wouldn't.

It's May and I'm realizing that The Timer, bless its unbending digital inner-workings, has made our class more efficient but not fuller of students powered by character.

Or even habit. I would take habit at this point.

So all of this to say, while my standards for behavior are very high, I'm realizing just in time to start planning for next year that my standards for character need to be even higher.

We've still got six weeks to work on this... Updates to come.