Morale and Motivation

I came to school today in a great mood, for three reasons in particular: One, the trip to see my sister's senior art show in Indiana provided me with a long weekend away from work; Two, I was wearing new red shoes (courtesy of my generous new friend Maggie, who let me adopt them for my very own, even though they were probably her best Goodwill-find ever); Three, I was carrying a bag of dark chocolate that I bought for the road trip, but forgot about until this morning when I unpacked. 

However, after unwrapping and devouring my third dark chocolate piece in the first two minutes of my plan period today, I realized it might not be the best idea to bring chocolate with me to work (long weekends and new shoes, on the other hand, remain a great way to bolster morale).

The inspiration for my manic chocolate-eating was the stack of US History tests that I was putting off entering into the grade book.  The curve of grades looked more like a steep upward climb than a bell, which usually means that something went terribly wrong. 

But as I paged through the open-note short answer tests, a few patterns reassured me that the error was not on my part.   Instead of answering all 8 short answer questions, some kids stopped after 4 or 5.  Far from writing the minimum 2 sentences, some kids wrote three words.  Instead of sentences, one kid copied a T-chart out of his notes.  I might have been tempted to award him with a point or two anyway, but the chart was unfortunately unrelated to the question he indicated he was answering.

It really pains me to have to hand out bad grades, but I just had to admit it was clear that the only thing wrong with this test was carelessness and lack of effort on the part of my dear angels.  Sometimes I just don't get them, and it is so difficult to predict what assignments will inspire them, and which will cause them to sink into the depths of hopelessness and whininess. 

One student today, a college-bound senior doing independent study, sighed dramatically and said "Really, Ms. Friesen? A TWO-page paper??" I laughed, embarrassed at my ridiculously low standards, and replied, "You're saying that because it's so short, right?"  He wasn't. 

On the other hand, my normally unmotivated sophomores (the authors of the tests above) settled right into a long-term reading assignment today, with no protest at all.  Over the next several days, they will be reading any 50 pages out of a selection of topical history books I picked from our school library.   "We can read 50 pages from any of the books we want?" Yep.  "So, is that 50 pages out of each book, or 50 pages total?" one not-particularly-academically-minded student asked, without a trace of fear or concern in her voice. 

"Um, yes... ONLY 50 pages total..." (And you ONLY have to write a total of 100 facts gleaned from those only 50 pages.  ...Glad you see it that way). During the 40 minutes they read silently today, I only had to send one student into the hall to do jumping jacks (which is a relatively mild fix for this particular student's overwhelming energy and effervescent obnoxiousness). 

Well, I remain mystified about the process of motivating and inspiring teenagers.  But my new shoes are still comfortable after 8 hours of pacing the classroom, and I got enough papers graded during plan to leave the rest at school, so I'm going home satisfied with my day.