At the beginning of this school year, I made myself a promise: I was going to do my damnedest to keep from yelling at kids this year.  I knew from the beginning that this was not going to be a resolution that I was going to be able to keep for the entire school year; the relevant question was how long I’d go before I failed.  I am, as you may have guessed, somewhat of a volatile personality.  I’ve done better almost every year at keeping my cool in the face of nonsense.  Some years (last year) I’ve backslid; I guarantee I’ve raised my voice to kids less frequently this year than I did last year.  So, in that, I suppose it’s been a success.  That said, I’ve had a few embarrassing displays even just in the past few weeks, so I’m not there just yet.  Also, I keep losing sight of the fact that there’s still a full quarter of school left.  Positive Man recognizes that there is still time for things to go wrong.  🙂

Here’s where I’ve failed so far this year, and where I’m going to do my best to improve substantially in what’s left of the school year:  I have not been good enough in 1) emphasizing positivity in my classroom; 2) rewarding the kids who are not behavior issues; and 3) rewarding and/or simply acknowledging good choices in general.  It’s very easy as an educator to get too tied up in managing pathology in the various forms that it might show up in your classroom; there have been times in this year where I’ve simply felt buried in it.  Things have been getting better lately in my first/second hour block, which have been my problem children all year long– unfortunately, they’ve been slipping in my third and fourth hour block.  My honors kids continue to be the living personification of why I’m a teacher.

For the rest of the school year I need to work harder at being positive, both to set an example and to give some recognition to the kids who sorely deserve it.  Even when I’ve recognized positive behavior this year it’s generally been for kids where that positive behavior has been rare.  That’s a good thing, mind you, but it leaves out the kids who do what they’re supposed to do every day, or even do what they’re supposed to do four days out of every five or nine days out of every ten.

I gotta do better.   Time to start.