I can do this.

“What happened to you from the first day? I mean, you were so nice and stuff, and now you’re…mean.” Well, I think this week was the first time in my life that anybody has ever called me mean. A lot of teachers, at least around here, take being called mean as a compliment. I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. Then I thought about it a little more. What this girl perceived as me being mean was really just me not letting her get away with doing whatever she wants to do in class. Hey, maybe I’m just finally in charge now…

3 weeks in. I guess we’re starting to get the hang of it. It’s still stressful and exhausting, but at least it’s more of a routine.

A few messages to my students:

-       “Can you come here? I can’t do this.” Saying this in the particular way that you do it does not really make me want to help you. Try this: “Mr. Vander Haak, I’m having trouble understanding this. Could you please help me?”

-       When I say, “Complete the entire worksheet”, I’d prefer not to have eight different people ask me, “Do I answer these questions?” Are they on the worksheet? If the answer to this question is “yes”, please refer back to my original instructions.

-       I can usually notice when things are copied from the Internet. Please don’t do it. I’m not sure if you expected me not to notice (even when you used words like “forb”), or if you just didn’t expect me to do anything about it. I don’t like giving out zeros for plagiarism (and I’m sure you don’t either).

-       When I ask you to wait to go to the bathroom when there is somebody else out already, your sound of disgust is not appreciated. Realize that there is a school policy about letting more than one student leave the classroom at once.

-       “What are we supposed to be doing?” This is a question that should not be asked: (1) when I am in the middle of explaining the directions, or (2) after I have explained the directions, they are up on the board, and, just in case, I have also printed them at the top of your handout.

-       Conversation I have had with more than one of you:
    You: “I don't know how to answer this question.”
    Me: “Have you read the question?”
    You: “No.”
    Me: “Okay, then read the question.”
    You: Reads the question. “Oh, I get it now.”
Can you see how this conversation is unnecessary?

Well, most of my stress comes from students preferring to talk through an entire class period rather than allow me to give 30 seconds of directions and their desire for me to hold their hands and do the work for them (especially after they have completely missed the directions) when I know they are all capable of doing it on their own.

This post has probably sounded mostly like me complaining about my students (probably because that’s what I’ve been doing). Most students seem to be perfectly reasonable, respectful, logical people outside of class, but then we put them all together into a classroom, and it’s like they forget what they’re capable of.

An “I can’t do this” student (see message number one) comes into my classroom after school and politely asks me for help with Chemistry. After 5 minutes, she leaves saying, “Oh, that wasn’t so hard.”

This complaining about my students shouldn’t convince you that I’ve lost faith in them. It really seems to me that way too many students have way too little confidence and self-sufficiency when it comes to school, when outside of the classroom they can be just the opposite. We just need to find a way to bridge that gap between outside and inside the classroom.

Message to students:

-       I don’t want to hear “I can’t do this” one more time, because you can.

My classroom may be a little crazy at times, but I’m doing my best to stay sane. I still somehow get plenty of sleep at night and this weekend I got away with doing maybe three hours of work. Yesterday, we went out to “The Pyramid” (a very large outdoors store/restaurant/bowling alley/hotel/aquarium/taxidermy display) with a group from church. It was nice to not spend the whole day working, and there was fudge there, so of course we had to get 6 different flavors. Then that night we had some friends over for dinner and games and a quick run to Chick-fil-A, arriving 5 minutes before they closed. Hey, if we can find time for stuff other than work, maybe that’s a start toward modeling the “I can do this” attitude for my students. It’s hard, but I think it’s starting to get better.

- David