Assignment Submission Rates

It's that time of year again - report writing season. And as I sit here endlessly crafting the most parent-friendly report comments I can, I have been struck by a common thread across far too many of my students' results.... They don't submit assignments. I mean, I did know that already - it didn't take sitting down to write reports to realise - but I don't understand WHY? I was such a conscientious student that the thought of not submitting something never even occurred to me! But my students just don't care about assignments. Most of them would only submit an assignment if it was an in-class one. Inevitably homework or take-home assignments, if submitted, are late and not to the same standard as they would be if done at school - and that's if they're submitted at all. For one assignment in one class, I had less than a 30% submission rate. Which is making me think - is it me? Is there something I can do to improve this submission rate? Aside from doing all our assignments in class, which takes up so much valuable time, how else can I support my students to get their work done?? I've just started using Edmodo and I can see the potential for it to help keep students on track outside of the classroom... But I haven't quite wrapped my head around how to do that effectively. As well as that, many of my students are from low socio-economic backgrounds and I really can't rely on them having reliable internet access from home. We have a lunchtime homework club, which attracts appallingly low numbers - and the kids who come would submit their assignments anyway, so it's not really helping the ones who don't submit. I know other teachers who keep students in at lunch until their assignment is submitted - but that's a huge time commitment and a very negative-reinforcement way to approach the issue in my mind. I want to foster an understanding of the importance of assignments, and an intrinsic motivation to achieve, in my students rather than have them submit assignments simply to avoid some form of punishment. So what to dooooo?

New Year, New Kids

It's been quite a while since I got a chance to blog but I really value the opportunity to reflect on tools like this, so I'm going to try and keep up the habit - even if it's not terribly regularly.

I've been back at school for a month now, three weeks of which has been with my new classes. I'm teaching Year 7 again this year, which I think is great - a) because I like year 7s, they're still little and cute (to begin with) and b) because it's a great opportunity to consolidate everything I learned last year.

I have two classes, which are polar opposites. One of the classes has a high proportion of students with special needs, such as learning disorders and mental health issues. They've been challenging so far. Individually they're all nice kids - but as a group they can be a bit overwhelming. It is taking me a little while to work out, for instance, a harmonious seating arrangement. This week that has been really challenging but I think over time, and especially as I keep getting chances to build relationships with the kids, I'll probably grow to feel very "mother hen" about this particularly clutch.

My other class are completely different - a number of very bright students, a number of very funny students, a number of sweet and beautiful girls, and only one or two kids who push the point. These kids have asked great questions, laughed at my (often lame) jokes, and are the kind of class that do something every day that makes you smile.

I attended a PD recently on positive psychology, which I also studied at university, and it reminded me of the concept of a "Gratitude Journal". My family tried this many years ago, and I was enthusiastic but maybe too young to keep it up. So I thought I would try to keep this blog fairly positive, a place where I can remind myself of the things I am grateful for in my work.

So today, we had to put our very old and dottery cat down. She had racked up some serious mileage in pussycat years, and has lived a good life, so I'm trying not to let myself get too upset about having to let her go. However I spoke to my Mum on my lunch break and she was very upset, so I went out onto playground duty feeling a bit fragile.

As always happens to me on playground, the moment I walked out of the building doors I was surrounded by a special little subgroup of my students (past and present). They're the kids that crave some adult attention, that aren't too cool to hang with a teacher, the ones that want to hug you, the ones that will give you a Christmas card at the end of the year, the sort that somehow manage to clear the way to your heart even on the dark days. Somehow (and I'm still not sure how) they convinced me to play jump rope with them. Now, I was quite the dab hand at jump rope when I was their age - but that was 16 years ago!!!

So there I was, taking turns running in and out of a long jump rope in my high-visibility playground duty vest, struggling to keep my jeans from slipping down, trying to hold onto my key lanyard, getting out of breath and hot and just thinking... "how cool is this."

I love that my relationships with my students allows me to do things like this. Things like rapping the chorus of Eminem's "Slim Shady" off-the-cuff in class yesterday, having last years's students waiting at my classroom door to say hello when my new class walk out, having some others of last year's students trying to go undetected in my class as a prank.

It's so easy to focus on the hard stuff, the challenges, the heart-breaking stories, the lessons that don't go according to plan, the kids doing the wrong thing, the days that we walk out and think "Thank God that's over."

It's much harder to focus on the little tiny moments that lift you up. They're so minute sometimes they can go unnoticed - but they're so much more valuable in the long run.