Respect + Effort in Middle School

As my readers know, I wanted to make a concerted effort to spend more time in classrooms this year. In addition to observing 50 full-period classes, I am aiming to meet with all of the Middle School advisories over the course of the next few months. Unless the advisor has a particular topic that he/she would like me to cover, I will have the students do some self-evaluation on the effort and respect they have displayed in school thus far in the year. Yesterday, I met with an 8th grade girls’ group, and today I talked with a 6th grade boys’ advisory. The students did some reflecting and writing about questions related to effort and respect, and then we discussed their responses. I am collecting all the worksheets and then will do some analysis of the responses once all my visits are completed. I will be interested to see, for example, how different grade levels judge their own effort and how students of varying ages and genders speak about respecting themselves, others, and Calvert.