November 5, 2021
Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. I had a good discussion with one of our peers regarding some of our students and lack of work ethic. I know many of you have had the student who will take the test not prepared and will just say I'll take the retake. How do we help students develop that work ethic? Where has the "grit" gone in our students?
Unfortunately, this is not something that is unique to our school or to our students. And not every student is this way. But we are seeing more and more students struggle with school. Some of the struggle comes from gaps in skills and others come from a lack of effort or what I call "stick withitness". How do we emphasize the work ethic students need, not only in school, but in life? Not only are some students missing this key trait, we are also seeing a rise in anxiety. I think these two things could be related.
Think about your experiences growing up, for some of you this isn't that far back, but for me it is a little more of a stretch to remember. I didn't have to worry about where my next meal was going to come from. I didn't have to worry about not having something. I also lived in a traditional household with both parents. I was fortunate enough to learn how to work and the value of hard work. At the time, I didn't think throwing hale bales all day was fun, but looking back, I know that is where I learned how to really work. If I watched the news, it didn't just show the bad happening in the world. And for the most part, the political parties were able to get along and at least come to an understanding.
Much of this has changed. We are seeing more single parent families or non-traditional families. It seems every group has an agenda and it is hard to know who to believe. We have students that are struggling with their identity and who they are. Students have the pressure of social media and maybe access to too much information. Why learn something, when I can look it up in 5 minutes?
We have all chosen this profession because we want to have a positive impact on others. I am willing to bet that school was easy for most of us. These type of students are easy to deal with, it is the "at risk" students that are harder to deal with. Mr. Kopperud and I were talking a couple weeks ago after a workshop he attended. At the workshop, one school talked about a google sheet they used to mark when they had a non-academic conversation with a student. After a couple of weeks, it became clear some students never had a non-academic conversation. No one asking how they were doing, what is going on in their lives, etc. This is something simple we can do to make a connection with these students. It will take a while to get them use to this, but I am willing to bet that we will see better results.
Looking ahead, we have our early out Wednesday for inservice. CIA will get the agenda out before then.
Enjoy your weekend!
Assistant Principal's Happenings
I have noticed an increase in individual student concerns. I think this is due to getting to know the students more and figuring out their behaviors. Many of these are minor things but have been impacting the classroom environment or the individual student's education. I am happy to help with these concerns as they need to be addressed.
I was able to sub in some classes this past week. It is nice for me to see students from a different perspective- and probably nice to see me in front of a class instead of pulling them out of class. I did have to send a student home for refusing to do anything so I experienced everyone's frustration from students having the mindset of not having to complete work. In this particular case, he had previous warnings about his expectations so this was the follow-through when he refused again. I recommend spending time going over expectations with your students and doing the follow-through when they do break your expectations.
Please take care of yourselves as we head into the holiday season! It is great to see family and friends but I know a lot of you have been getting sick lately. Take time for yourself and get some rest! Enjoy your extra hour of sleep if you don't have small children.
Have a good weekend!
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