Teacher Tuesday

I had a hard time figuring out what to write about today in regards to my classroom. I really wanted to report on an amazing scavenger hunt type activity that I put together for Spanish level 2, but I haven't polished that yet and need to wait a little longer.

But then I had lunch with my coworkers who were very aggravated and not so positive. It seemed to mirror how I get by the end of each school week. I start Mondays very motivated and positive and ready to make a difference in the lives of tons of kids. Then Tuesday I start to get a little tired. Wednesday I start to want to give up. Thursdays I actually do give up.

I don't want to be another typical whiney teacher, because there are countless things I love about my job. For example, nothing beats the moment a past student comes back and thanks you for making a difference in their journey, or tells you how much you have used the skills you taught in their daily lives. It really keeps us going. Also, I really like the "lightbulb" moment. That's the moment when a kid who has struggled with a concept for a while and you tried a new angle to explain and all of a sudden they get it, and they feel such self price that it's contagious.

But, what I am struggling with today is what we can actually hold the kids accountable for. Yes, these are teenagers we are talking about, and we all know that the teen years are a strange and challenging time. What really blurs the lines for me, is when to joke with students in order to make a connection, and when to draw the line. Even as a student was trying to bring up a serious point (about how they don't necessarily know when I am joking and when I am upset), he couldn't even discuss it with me seriously. There was just not any level of self reflection, only blame shifting.

So what I am struggling with in my classroom (and in our culture as a whole) is the lack of a "time and place" for professionalism. Our current students seem confused about what is an out of school joke/trend and what is appropriate for in the classroom. In turn, I struggle as the adult to be able to make connections with them while still maintaining a distance from the more inappropriate trends.

I've learned this year that what I view was too far across the line for school isn't the same as a lot of parents and even a lot of my coworkers.
Is a t-shirt that says "John did-er" instead of John Deer okay for a student to wear to school?
Even though girls can't really find longer shorts in the store, so we ban all shorts or how do we decide the line?
Why are students still arguing to wear hats in the classroom?
How can I give them homework using technology they relate to to see Spanish in their personal world, when lots of things they find online have inappropriate language?
Should I kid chewing tobacco during class be suspended?
Why not, since a kid smoking a cigarette in class would be?
How do you tell high school couples not to make out in the hallway when they see much more than that on prime time tv?
How can I ask them to use their phones in class for certain activities (again, in order to connect to what they're used to) but expect them to be able to manage themselves enough to actually work on the phone and not text, snap, tweet, post, etc?

The idea I am trying to pin point is, these students aren't horrible, aren't messed up...they are just exposed to so much more mature content than generations before were used to. Because of this, they have a low maturity mixed with a large knowledge of things they don't really understand. And since we have this type of student in school now, how do we manage this? What rules do we set? How do we connect with them, while still modeling how to appropriately behave in the work place?

If anyone out there has input, I would love to hear thoughts and suggestions.

This last class was a tough one for me and I am full of reflection in this Little Life.