Mrs. M, You´re Mean

Ouch! One of my stuggles as a teacher has always been finding the balance between being strict and showing students that there are clear boundaries for behavior and being too nice and relaxed. This leads to the constant pushing of boundaries and for much less productivity than I would wish for.

So as time goes on, I have become more and more strict and much quicker to let my students know when they are crossing the line of acceptable classroom conduct. I am proud of myself about this.

However, the other day I was teaching my students about symbolism and theme - I typed notes up and they copied them off of the projection screen.

As I was walking around to check that the students had their notes - one girl - who I must say is a little less than focused, had about half of the info written down. I say, not in a mean way, "Make sure you get all of the information down, including the examples." The girl says, "But I have no more space." Half of her paper was blank! Clearly this was an excuse. I point to the paper and say (perhaps a bit sarcastically), "Look - what is that, lots of room!! Please write down the notes."

Thus eliciting a, "Mrs. M, you´re mean to kids!" OUCH!!

Do I want to be mean? No. Do I want my students to learn something? Yes. Someday the perfect balance will be reached.