Wednesday, August 19, 2015

1 vs. 100

This morning anticipating the first day of school I posted a tweet. The tweet read. " Let's be as excited on day 100 as we are on day 1." You see when students enter our school building no matter where they ended up the previous year, their age or gender they are filled with anticipation. Here at the middle school we have a very diverse range of this example. Sixth graders walk in extremely nervous not knowing teachers, staff, what the bells mean, why there is no teacher leading place to place.to put it bluntly they are more scared than anything else. Diversely the 8th graders are puffing out their chests proud to be the upperclassmen. Then the 7th graders some look still scared others just released they are not the rookie and still others thinking they are older than they actually are. To say that I enjoy this odd mix and emotions would be an understatement. The challenge I have set before my teachers is to not let day 1 effect your day 2. What do I mean by that, try to limit the carry over. Students will make mistakes and they will upset you and keep you up at night. Give them the clean slate approach on a daily. Give them renewed energy on the regular. It will not be easy but to accomplish true growth it never is.