Balance

February 10, 2022

After sitting through an evaluation meeting with both my Learning Director and my principal that was incredibly positive, I had a student tell me that some of the students in one of my classes didn't like my class because they thought I was 'controlling' (I was pretty astonished by that one, because I give a lot of choice in class) and gave busywork.  I am big on trying to explain and show why any given assignment is given--the purpose of things like outlines, or annotating what we read for study.  Still, there are kids who don't make the connection and just want us to 'let them read' or 'let them write' without what some of them consider 'fluff'.  Clearly I need to circle back and explain some of the benefits of why we do what we do, but also, sometimes I think that some of our students call 'busywork'  is merely 'work they don't want to do'.  Whenever you think you're doing a good job, someone will come along and make you question it.  Balance keeps us on our toes.