People (and Moments) Worth Appreciating

So many times over the course of the year, I have to stop myself and realize that for every time a kid does not meet the behavioral and/or learning expectations that we have established as a class, there are at least five moments where a kid exceeds them. Kids do great, thoughtful, kind things every day, yet somehow it's tough to not get caught up on the one or two exceptions. 

One of the questions from the survey that I wrote about last week focused on a classmate that students appreciate. For each of my four classes I created a handout that took all of the responses and turned them into "they" statements, emphasizing that these are the kind of behaviors that we should all strive towards. I also took standout statements from each group and had my homeroom help me design a bulletin board on the first day back from break. 

The class discussions that stemmed from looking at all of this data were varied and fascinating. After analyzing the trends from this question and two others (What is something your class does well? What is something that your group needs to work on?) we started talking about the kind of environment that we want to create over the last two months of the year.  Again, the honesty rang true and kids stepped up. Some classes had tense moments as kids confronted - head on - some of the frustrations they have with peers compromising their learning environment. But, in each case, the kids (not me) moved the conversation towards a resolution and discussed their expectations of each other. 

By the end of the week, I hope to have posters with the individual group expectations displayed somewhere in the room. I know that this is certainly not a cure-all, but all of these conversations have helped us decide - as a group - how we assess positive contributions. The kids have supplied the language to use when giving them feedback. Most importantly, they reminded me that for every situation that leaves my hair one step closer to gray, there are five that epitomize why I love working with and learning from 7th graders.