Holy crap it's almost November.

Lolo's most recent blogpost has got me thinking about the type of teacher I am becoming after having been at my school for almost 2 whole months.

I think I'm developing a bit of intolerance towards some of my students. Because the atmosphere at school tries so hard to promote personal responsibility within the students (good), I think that hearing so many teachers' opinions about not allowing students to turn in late work, or purposely making tests extremely hard to "test" students' attention to detail is starting to make me have not only unreal but also unfair expectations of my students.

It's not that I go out of my way to prevent my students from excelling in my class. I make myself available before school and during lunch every day to meet with students if they need extra help or want to talk about preparing for an upcoming test. And I try to develop personal relationships with my students by making time every day to have personal conversations with as many of them as I can.

But I haven't been very diligent about touching base with my students when I notice that they are slipping. Because they are DCD students, they should be "personally responsible for their own actions and mistakes". A good message, no? So how does that transfer to "If they don't turn it in, it's not problem"? Why am I catching myself developing this ideology about my students?

I think I just need to be more dedicated to being more visible and available. I also need to remember that kids are kids, especially 14 year old freshmen. They are going to forget their homework, and they're going to get caught up in HS drama and extracurriculars, and sometimes they won't get their work done. I just need to find that balance between empathy and expectations. Help finding that line would be much appreciated :)