It's Been Too Long!

It's truly been too long since I last posted. So many things have happened- some good and others bad. Both keeping me from using my blog like I wanted. I'm not going to allow those things to get in the way.

I wish I could recap the last few months and all the amazing things that have been happening in my classroom. It would be incredibly difficult to put all of it into words. To begin, I have awesome students this year! Sometimes they drive me crazy but they are all gems. I love teaching them. I will miss them greatly when I go on maternity leave.

Some of the things that are currently on my mind as a teacher leader are how do we set standards across the grade levels for all teachers and students? My department met this morning in our weekly PLC and the topic today focused around standards and expectations of students in our middle school Language Arts classrooms. Is it okay to continue to accept work where they won't capitalize a sentence? Their name? Titles? Why do we allow this to go on? Why are there differences in the standards and expectations between an on grade level class and a PreAP class? Should there be a difference between 6th grade expectations and 8th grade expectations?

This morning has really made me reflect on what I do in my classroom during the day. Today I've really taken a look at what I'm doing in my classroom and what I'm expecting of my students. I have my set of Writing Non-Negotiables that I've posted on our class blogs. When it comes down to it though do I always hold them accountable? In truth, no because sometimes I think that they won't  take the time to edit their work for it to be better. Thinking about that makes me disappointed in myself since I have to hold them accountable at all times.

How do you continue to hold your students accountable even when it's not necessarily the easiest thing to do?