Grade four is awesome. I have a couple that I worry about in terms of their home life and how that hinders their ability to complete their work, but they have all been doing pretty well. No one is failing. No one has a crazy amount of missing work. They are all well behaved, enthusiastic and ready to learn. Maybe sometimes they get a bit wild, but they're only 9 years old! I can't blame them for just being kids!
Fifth grade. I'm worried about several of these kids and how they will manage middle school next year. The differences between some of the kids in that class astound me. There's a group that makes up about half the class that is absolutely dedicated to completing all of their work on time and submitting it. And then there's the other half of the class who waits until the last minute and then tries to blame everyone but themselves. Well, my homework is always given at the beginning of the week and due at the end of the week. If you didn't sit down and complete it on one of the four available afternoons, that's really on no one but yourself. They'll learn that it's not going to get any easier, I just don't want to see them fail before they figure it out. Unfortunately, though, there's only so many chances I can give them.
Middle school is a beast. I don't think I have ever met a middle school student who actually likes middle school. First off, they're asked to be more responsible. Secondly, they are just entering puberty and hormones are all over the place. And the third thing that creates such stress? Parents. These kids are looking for independence, and I get it. But some of them are frustrated because their parents haven't let go at all, and some of them are crazy with rage because their parents have let go too much. It's not an easy time for any child or parent, I'm aware, and it's a crazy balancing act trying to find what works and what doesn't. But someone needs to figure it out, write it down and sell millions of books on the topic.
Anyways. Sixth grade. These are my middle school babies. And half of them come from a history of bad work habits. But the other half? They're bored and ready to just move on already! Being that their circumstances are so different from last year, there's a lot of hand-holding going on with this group. They're learning and growing and struggling with changing teachers, millions of books, crazy hormones and everything else that comes with being in middle school. It's a tough transition, so I am doing my best to help them get through it as smoothly as possible. Unfortunately, though, in order to help them, they have to want to be helped. And some of them have figured that out and are blossoming into amazingly capable human beings and learning more than they probably imagined they could! But a few of them... Let's just say there's going to be another few weeks of extensive hand-holding.
Seventh grade. They were last years middle school babies. By now they've got it figured out and they've been cut loose and told to swim on their own. I can honestly say that every student in that class is capable of managing their work load and maintaining A's and B's. I can also honestly say that 75% of them don't care about maintaining any grade about a C. As long as they're passing, even if they're hardly holding on, they'll let it go. What's more important? Well, just about everything to them. This class was mine last year, though, and I have higher hopes for them than they do for themselves. I know they can be a good class if they all stop clowning around, sit down, close their mouths and listen! Again, though, they have to want to do that. My solution? If you're not going to sit down, stop talking and pay attention then you go out in the hall, sit by yourself and copy the article we were going to read in class that day or write a prayer over and over until I ask them to rejoin the class. I have already had a few of them who had to do that. It didn't go over too well and they're catching on, slowly, but surely.
And then there's eighth grade. They are literally just off their rocker. They're excited to be at the top and feel special and like they are almost to the end. It's in sight if they can just hold on a little bit longer! But the disrespect they show to themselves, to other students and to their teachers is absolutely appalling. I understand that they're a social group and most of them have been in the same school since Kindergarten so they know how to push each others buttons. But there is a time and there is a place. And in the middle of my class is not it. It wouldn't take much for them to be in my good graces. Come in to class quietly, be prepared, stay quiet unless asked to speak and pay attention and you're golden! I really don't think that's so much to ask. But they're seriously struggling with the concept of appropriate classroom behavior.
At the beginning of the school year, I decided to have a Friday Fun Day every week with all of my classes. Yes, even with my middle school classes because they are still kids. As much as they want to be treated like adults, they still love the same things as little kids. Sports, bubbles, swings, silly jokes. It's all good to them still and I feel like they need to just be allowed to be kids sometimes. So we have Friday Fun Day. Up to this point it has been pretty easy to earn your Friday Fun Day. As long as we get through the weeks lesson, you're golden. Unfortunately, as we move into the second quarter, the more we have to accomplish during the week. This means that the more they goof off, the less likely they are to get Friday Fun Day.
I'm hopeful that they will learn quickly that they don't like losing Friday Fun Day. Honestly, I am expecting that 7th and 8th grade will go two or three weeks without Friday Fun Day before they catch on, but it will be a good lesson to them.
A lot of these kids don't understand just how good they have it at our school. They attend a school where their teachers actually care about them. We want them to succeed, and our middle school team of teachers meets every week to discuss what we can do to help this student or that through a rough patch. We are in constant communication trying to help them in any way that we can. When we need to, we call in parents to discuss grades and/or behaviors we've seen. It's important to us that they succeed.
When 8th grade goes to high school next year, they aren't going to have teachers that dedicate an entire week to completing missing work like I did just last week. They aren't going to have teachers who spend more class time asking one student to be quiet than they do lecturing. They aren't going to have teachers who spend an entire class period talking to them about what is and is not appropriate behavior in a classroom setting. It just doesn't happen. Even in most middle schools, the teachers don't often care enough to try and help them make it through the class period.
We have students who struggle on a daily basis for one reason or another. And if they do their best, we do our best to help them keep going. Because that's what being a teacher is to us. Or at least that's what it is to me. I don't want to just lecture them all the time. I don't want to just let them not turn in work and fail my class. That doesn't teach them anything about life and responsibility. It just teaches laziness.
We need to teach these children how to be adults. It doesn't happen in a day. It doesn't even happen in a year. But we need to teach them as much as we can in the time that we have because society depends on it. Throwing these kids out into the real world after they have had their hand held since they were born isn't going to work. They won't have any idea what they are walking into, and once the realize what they've walked into they'll have no understanding of how to manage it.
My goal for the year is for these students to learn what they need to about the Catholic Church and traditions. But I also want to teach them some valuable life skills so they can be just a little bit more prepared for the life they have ahead of them. I feel that's part of my responsibility as a teacher, and even as a parent to Kaley.
It's important.
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