Oh Bother...

When I was a little girl, I fell in love with Winnie the Pooh, that chubby little yellow bear whose shirt is too small, whose arms are too big for his honey pot, and whose characteristic phrase is "Oh, bother..."

I didn't quite understand the phrase when I was little. He was just cute.

But today, I understood.

Nothing went wrong exactly, but it just didn't feel right.

Starting in 3rd period, several students from my classes were absent (several of my failing students) because there was a mile race against Centennial. It's OBVIOUSLY a big deal, being rivals and all. When the announcement came, they just up and left.

Well, today they were working on a pretty large assignment for my class.

I got a little perturbed that they would allow students with multiple I's (incomplete grades) to leave the school for this athletic jubilee when they especially needed that time in class.

And then, in class, I discovered that several of my students aren't doing reading at home: my only homework. Though I had warned them at the beginning of the year that they would NOT pass my class if they did not read at home (which they remembered), their justification was, "Well, I have a C in your class now so I didn't think I needed to do anything else."

C. We're shooting for C's here?

With the end of term approaching, I'm just pooped. I am working 10 times harder for them to succeed than they are (or so it feels). I allow them to redo any assignment (so long as they turn it in on time) for points back. Did anyone turn in revisions today? No.

But I'm planning accordingly. Tomorrow is my mercy day. Those students who are not on top of their work have a chance to revise and make things up. Those students who are and have been on top of their work get to get a head start in reading. I've reminded them for the last week to check their grades on Powerschool. I had them write it in their planners several times. Seriously. I'm working hard here.

I was even going to print off individual progress reports for each student to let them know what assignments they were missing or needed improvement on, but I stopped myself. I should not be doing the work that students can do for themselves (even though it might make tomorrow less stressful for me when a student comes and says, "Mrs. Brown, I have an I in your class. Why?" even though I warned them not to ask me that question).

Where is the balance people? I know I'm supposed to be solution oriented! I know I'm supposed to think of alternative ways to reach students who obviously didn't get the message. But what if students just don't care? Doesn't there HAVE to be some consequences for that?

This particular district has some issues - you can't FAIL middle school (which I've learned is a "middle school principle altogether"). There are no D or F grades. If you do fail a term, you're "invited" to attend summer school, but you are not required to. You can still progress on to high school if you got less than 30% in all of your middle school classes. What kind of a message is that? What kind of leverage does that give me as a teacher?

And more importantly, why do I need leverage? I've tried to make this learning as authentic as possible, even admitting to students that the importance of middle school isn't WHAT you learn, it's about learning HOW to learn. That these strategies are vital to succeeding in life, not just in school.

But still...

Like I said: "Oh, bother..."

Tomorrow..... will be crazy. And there are a million things I can do to prevent that, but there are also things students can do to prevent that. And I have to give them the chance to do it. I have to let them understand the consequences... I can't do it for them.

Easier said than done.