The Hardest Part of the Year

Students AND teachers tend to get stressed and slap-happy this time of year. The second semester and 4th quarter especially seem so much longer than the first semester. Hell, the 4th quarter seems like an entire semester in itself. 10 weeks? Might as well be 10 months!

Different factors contribute to the overall decline in participation, focus, preparation and overall sense of "care". For students, as the weather gets warmer their minds get lazier. They start staring out the window a little more and it takes an extra 5 minutes to get them inside after recess. Some of them are dreaming about baseball practice, some of them are thinking about tanning, and the rest are either counting down until the last day of school or they're counting the number of tiles in the ceiling. For teachers, what really tends to make the days drag on and seem stressier than usual is usually the craziness and lack of focus in their students (judging solely from a random sampling of my coworkers, that is).

Once the kids start to lose focus and stop caring, it's hard as hell for teachers to keep it up! Personally, I start to think, "If they don't care, why should I?" All of a sudden I find I'm grading a little harsher and I'm snapping on students earlier than I did in the fall semester. It's not that I don't like the kids, far from it! It's just enormously depressing and stressing to feel like the only one out of 30 people who gives a hoot.

The problem with Spring is that there are SO. MANY. DISTRACTIONS. I'm sure it's different in climates that experience fewer differences in seasons, but living in Chicago is a nightmare. In the fall, the kids turn psycho the first time it snows. In the spring, they lose it on the first warm day. Not only that, but in the fall you have the knowledge that each warm day could be the last one. In the spring the days just get warmer and warmer and the kids inherently know that summer is coming. (Believe you me, they aren't the only ones. I've already got a countdown going on my desk calendar in my room. Each morning I cross off another day and count my blessings. ) As the days get warmer, the kids start itching to get outside and forget all about school. That's so draining on a teacher. Suddenly I start feeling like I have to dig a little deeper in my bag of tricks to get and keep their attention. "I WILL find a way to maintain order! I WILL!" Oy vey.

There are always ways to discipline kids, of course, but the closer it gets to the end of the year the more it seems pointless. You can give a kid so many detentions but sooner or later you'll run out of time. No one's crazy enough to demand a student show up after the school year has ended, and some parents would be angry enough to start World War Three in my classroom if I kept a student beyond the required number of days. Especially in the area I teach in, many parents and families spend the summers in Mexico, Texas, California, or Puerto Rico (or wherever) with family. By the last days of school plane tickets have been ordered, hotel rooms have been booked, families have been notified, and al the plans have been made. Asking/demanding them to stay without plenty of notice (more than a month in some instances) doesn't solve any problems and asking the wrong parent can turn the child against you and make the last days hellish.

When student behavior starts to turn, I've found that calling a parent early on helps. The parent is at least aware of the situation and can possibly work out a compromise with you. Regular phone or in person conferencing keeps the parent aware of the situation and the student can at least know that the teacher and the parents are speaking and any major infractions will be imparted to the parents. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it can't hurt!

When dealing with younger students, I almost hate to say it, I do stickers. Seriously. Whoever invented the sticker is a demi-god. Kids respond so well to stickers and sticker charts it's beyond ridiculous. It starts to wear off around the middle of 3rd grade, but from Pre-K to 3rd stickers are my go-to. Each student gets a sticker chart with his/her name on it and they get one sticker per day provided their behavior is good. They start comparing charts and counting their stickers and suddenly they're motivated again! It's a miracle.

As for me, I'm just hanging in there. I'm well into the single digit countdown for spring break! After that, it's a few weeks before Memorial Day weekend, and after that....sweet, sweet summer. Oh how I love the word! Can't wait for it!