"This is What I Expect from You"

.... I say that a lot to my students....

I started out expecting the world from my students…(adage "Children live up to what we expect them to become" was/is? my motto) then we hit the six week mark.  The newness wore off.  They are loud, annoying, and I have to force myself to care past 4^th period eighty percent of the time.  I have to re-ask myself, what do I want from these people? What is a reasonable request?  Apparently, what I thought was reasonable and what IS, indeed, reasonable are not even in the same realm most days.  So, I wonder, what should I do to boast moral, so to speak.

 

One thing that I strongly believe to be beyond the capabilities of most 7^th and 8^th graders is consistent daily behavior while in a block schedule.  I think I would be able to make this work better if I were able to have centers and thus, more movement they could stay more focused.  However, the rigid system we adhere to locks us into an agenda that splits the class into distinctive groups of three where they have their work placed before them… not to mention that my classroom does not seem to provide ample space for much more than desk rearrangement. 

 

I sound like I am complaining… maybe I am a little bit.  I just think the students would enjoy class more if they didn’t have the opportunity to get so restless.  It is unrealistic to expect them to sit still and quietly for literally two hours.  I don’t believe that I, a straight-A, dead focused student for life could do it.  I could hardly handle Tuesday/Thursday classes in college…

 

One thing I DO expect is better behavior than they have displayed over the last three weeks… they have gotten comfortable and their true colors are beginning to show… it bugs me.  I want the smiley, bright-eyed, curious students from August.  Ha. Dream on, I know.

 

I’m not gonna lie… its been tough for the past month or so.  I have really dreaded my job here and there.  I was afraid that I was alone in feeling this way so I asked another first-year teacher (TFA) how she felt about her line of work.  What she said inspired the poem below.  The quote at the bottom is entirely honest and verbatim what she said… what’s more?  I TOTALLY understand where she’s coming from and have felt (constantly feel, these days?) the EXACT same way…

 

Comments

[Mississippi Teacher Corps]

Where's the poem?

[elisepatterson]

I hear you on the frustration of not having high expectations for behavior. I'm absolutely of the opinion that having unrealistically high expectations in terms of academic content can backfire, is it really so unreasonable to expect kids to pay attention in class? Or do work? I had one kid turn in a paper taken entirely from wikipedia last week--and when I told him he would receive a zero, he was shocked. I asked him what he expected, and he said, "Well, I thought you would at least give me a 60."

Really? A passing grade? For cheating?

It's interesting to see what their expectations are of us.

[elisepatterson]

I hear you on the frustration of not having high expectations for
behavior. I'm absolutely of the opinion that having unrealistically
high expectations in terms of academic content can backfire, but is it
really so unreasonable to expect kids to pay attention in class?

sorry...