When you fall behind, you can stop the dominos from crashing

I fell behind on my blog posting. and resharing them on Linkedin.

My goal is one post every work day infinitely. And then I would share post on linkedin each evening.

Well, I let the linkedin posts slip when I was on spring break. And then I missed my posting yesterday. And this morning I missed my 8am goal.

Which means I have two to make up. And think of my post for tomorrow as well. Which of course makes me want to post even less.

I am an adult, teaching students who have very similar patterns.

yet I can be critical of my students who slip behind and struggle to catch up and find motivation to get even one assignment done.

How do I write this post, and two more then? My annoying, short version answer is years of practicing self-centered motivation and determination. Plus I have a pretty strong why.... (and a little bit of an ego that I don't want to "fail" my goal of one post a day)

But that is not something I can just teach in one day, or even one school year. So what are the stepping stones?

1. Have a reflection space for your students within your classroom or school day.

This can look many ways. It could be a verbal conversation with your student one on one. It could be a google form questonaire, it could be a study hall assignment or after school assignment. Whatever form you take it in, create a list of questions that can guide students into thinking about what is stopping them from completing and making up work. Questions you could ask: When did I start to slip on my work completion? What was going on at home? What was going on at school? What was stressful in my life at the time? What stress am I currently feeling? Do I feel like my stress is getting in the way of my work? How has my stress changed in the past few (Days/weeks)? How would I describe how I am feeling about (said class)

These questions take some of the blame game away and lead students to a genuine, less-threatening reflection. It is not "why aren't you doing your work? Well what could you do to start completing it??"

How many times have you heard or tried that tactic? and how far did it get you?

Setting your students up for genuine, personal reflection allows them to get to the root cause and reasoning behind WHY they are falling behind.

Maybe its just that the content is hard and they shut down once so they continue on that path. Or maybe there is a set moment of stress that threw off their momentum and they just can't get their feet under them.

2. Address the reasoning and set a new trajectory.

If you didn't conference with them yet, now is that time. I know I know BUT WHEN DO I HAVE THE TIME!?!?

Trust me, I don't currently do my students justice in this conferencing because I feel the same way. But, hopefully if you do a personal reflection, you'll have enough to go off of and have a productive, purposeful conversation.

In this stage, ask your students: What would help ease some of your stress? What things could we change at home or school to shift your stress? How are you dealing with it?

Then this may give you a clearer understanding of how much students are able to actually cope with the issues and how they problem solve. More and more we are seeing that kids are resilient, but they don't necessarily know how to articulate it. They aren't self aware of what they do, but understand what they are feeling or are trying to NOT feel.

We aren't going to get anyone just by trying once. And we do have to set a lot more time aside for this. But if we don't we will continue to pass along ill-equipped students WHICH means we will continue to receive ill-equipped students from the earlier years.

I got through my slacking because I was able to call myself out on it and find out WHY I slacked.

This week is IAR state testing which changes my daily schedule. I am dog sitting for a family and had two later nights than I normally do. My schedule and routine changed. And I was not handling my stress as well as I used to. So, I let the blog slip. twice.

But I am acknowledging it. Making it seen. Which hurts the ego. But it's fixing the issue. This post will be shared and I will get back on track.

Ownership.