So, I am trying something a little different this year. After talking with my teaching partner about the best way to start the year in terms of discipline, I have made the choice to toughen up a little bit. Micromanagement has such a negative connotation to it, but I guess if you hung out in my room it might seem a bit like that. I have been careful to really try and stay very positive, but also very no nonsense. If I say you need to sit and just do your work, then that is exactly what you need to do. In the past I have been a little softer, hoping that the kids would just kind of catch on to what they needed to do and out of the goodness of their hearts get the job done. Of course, some little ones always did, but there were the others who were a little tougher to corral. This year I think I am going to crack the whip a little more and see if I can get some better work out of them.
A lot of this thinking came out of an article I read in Newsweek about today's educational system. A reporter compared the education system of 1955 and the system of today and came up with the notion that the main difference between then and now was student motivation. Although I am sure there is a lot more to it than that, something resonated with me about just trying to get the kids to try harder in the work that they are doing. I would love for them to rise up from within and simply aspire to learn more and do more, but when that is not the case, some good old fashioned external motivation by a pushy adult standing over their shoulder can do worlds. We'll see how it goes.
