 Buddy I Am really glad to have you here. I'm gonna just take a few moments to welcome people who are joining us right now Hello, I got tired of taking selfies. So I drew a cartoon this week. I am going to go ahead and flip this around now Hi, I'm gonna set myself up over here. I still can't decide whether I like horizontal or vertical It's like people were starting to go You know landscape for a while and then they switched Hi, thanks for the heart so early. I didn't even do anything. I appreciate that very much So let me just this is like my sixth or seventh periscope now So I'm starting to get a little bit more comfortable with it. Hi Ella. Thank you for telling me who you are I would love to hear names of people because I can't always tell from your You know handles so I would love to hear the names of people here, and if this is your very first time Watching a periscope scope I would love to hear that too because I think this is such a really cool medium And I'm just always excited when somebody is brand new. Hi patty Hi, and so are you Jennifer? Are you saying hi Jennifer? Because if you're Jennifer then hey welcome. Hi Angela Good, I'm glad you like this topic. Good. Good. Good. I'm excited to talk about it, too So I'm gonna just take a little bit more time to just say hello Good hi, what's your name CHP 2114, what's your name? I'm so excited that brand new people are here. Hi Laura Hi Cheryl. There we go Jozan Stephanie Middle school art teacher great first time on periscope. I'm so excited that you all are here Well, you missed last week last week whoo last week we were We were bombarded by hundreds of I think high school students and they were inappropriate So I am hoping that we don't have that problem. I blocked a whole bunch of them last week I sat down and I wrote all their names down and I blocked them So hopefully this won't happen this time But if so you get to see how I handle myself under pressure and people telling me to take my shirt off so Okay, so if this is your first time if this is your first time and you already sort of know me from my website Then I don't need to give you any kind of introduction. Hey, I'm glad you subscribed to my emails My name is Jennifer Gonzalez. I have a website called cult of pedagogy. It is for teachers I all of my work is devoted to helping teachers do their jobs better and so I decided about a month and a half ago that I was getting too many emails from teachers asking for advice on things And I thought, you know, it doesn't really help anybody else, but this one person for me to give them advice One-on-one. So why not share my advice with everybody? So I pick one reader question per week and I answer it in a live broadcast and what's great about doing it this way Is that not only do a lot of people more people get to hear it But I get to get your ideas also and what I found on my blog post is that I will put together as Good of a blog post as I can I'll get as much research together But then the comments start coming afterwards and people start to share other resources that they know and other advice that they can Give for certain situations and it's wonderful because those blog posts get better over time Because of the comments and that's how I feel about periscope to that you all can help me I can give you my ideas, but then I can get ideas from other people too And this is definitely one that we all need to share ideas on so let me tell you about the original email It is Thank you for sharing. I Believe you swipe left or right for iOS or Android or up and down for the other one and you can share the broadcast and invite your friends to come in and watch So here was the original email that I got this is from a parent of a sixth grader and This seems to happen so much and I was a middle school teacher And so this happened a lot to students of mine. Thanks for sharing is that I would Kids would get started in middle school and their parents or their teachers or both would want them to have more Independence and not have so much hand-holding and the students grades would just Bought them out because they couldn't handle the level of independence that was required. It's a combination So this parent is Basically stuck at the end of a marking period Realizing that her son is failing most of his classes and her son is Very smart has never really struggled in school and he aces all of his tests But he cannot get the work turned in he just forgets it loses it doesn't hand it in and The the parent is at her wit's end and so This is a problem that a lot of parents face But it's a problem that a lot of teachers face to we have students who We see them doing the work and then when we have the pile later to grade That students paper is not there in it and so One thing that you should know is that most weeks when I do these I do a little bit of research And I just try to find some good online resources to kind of help add on to whatever I would have normally said and so Most of the time anyway, I'm gonna have a digital download that you can grab while you are Yeah, while you're watching to follow along or you can just grab it later So if you go to my website cult of pedagogy comm its CULT cult of OF and then pedagogy the art of teaching PEDA GOG why comm? Slash Periscope that is where I keep a running list of all the resources that I've shared in past periscope so I've got tonight's already loaded up and so it's just a list of the Four options that I'm gonna talk about tonight. I feel like this parent has four different options For dealing with this and I would love to hear other ideas from you all as well for what you think this parent should do because I Think if a lot of teachers are watching then you have all Definitely had you know this student before and I'm sure some of you have Have found solutions, so I would love to hear about those also if you are If you want to tell a friend about this later on and you can't find the periscope all of my periscopes are Collected on a a separate page. It's a website called catch with a K katch.me Slash cult of pedagogy. It's just an archive of all my old periscopes because they disappear from your phone after 24 hours But they're there so if you wanted to send somebody to that replay and there's actually a link to it on this download okay, so I feel like The parent I'm gonna speak to this from a parent's point of view and all of us who are teachers Chime in if you think there's something else that this teacher should do so I feel like this parent has four options the first one Being to work with this student and I'm referring to him as a him because that's the letter that I got but obviously this Would work for girls to work with him to create a plan of action this particular there there are a Dozens of different possible reasons why this could be happening It could be something sort of complicated in that they they just are having trouble with attention And they're having trouble really sticking to their work or it could be as simple as just maybe there's somebody in the class who they Don't like to walk past when they have to hand the work in sometimes. It's something that simple And so if this parent has not yet had a real heart to heart with her son about what is going on then that is obviously important and Thank You Michelle and To me this seems like an obvious solution But I think sometimes some parents automatically go to the punishment and saying well you better get your work done And you know we're gonna have to take away this and take away that and those things can be effective But they may not solve an underlying problem So start I would say by strategizing with your student and especially if we're talking about a middle or high school student But even you know sometimes I say middle and high school and my son's a third-grader and my daughter's a fourth-grader And they've got very logical minds. I think they could really contribute a lot in terms of what do you think? the solution should be so Hey Sorry, I have a friend of Ruth who is in here So so talking to the student about what do you think should be done? What do you think should be done? They might say one of the the I link to an article basically here Where a parent had gone to a forum and said I have this same problem with her eighth grade son And it's a long long long forum of a lot of parents and teachers giving her suggestions So I would say definitely link to that for option one because they give so many different suggestions But some of the ones that came up in in this thread were one see if the teachers will let him Turn everything in at the beginning of a school day If this is a student to who has a lot of teachers see if they can turn everything in at the beginning of the school day Ruth we're gonna get to that one next because we're gonna talk about finding out what's going on at school See if the student can come up with their own consequence You know say what consequence do you think would work because in a lot of cases this student will will say I want to change I want to fix this. I just don't know so you can say what do you think would work for some kids That may not for some kids. It may be working their way towards a reward instead of a consequence Another thing that was recommended in this thread was Considering whether or not you need to seek a diagnosis for ADD or ADHD that this could be an attention problem And a focus problem. So that's something else to consider so that would be the first thing and I'd say definitely go take a look at that thread because It's it's an interesting conversation between all these different parents and it gets a little contentious at one point But they are able to get it back together and I love watching people behave themselves nicely on the internet So if for nothing else take a look at that it almost gets snitty at some point. So option one See if you can strategize with your child Option to find out what's happening at school now in this option on the handout I have I don't have an article linked I just one of the things that I read a lot in that thread was this parent said when my kid got to middle school What I heard from teachers and from and about a lot of teachers in middle school was that a lot of them were saying it Is not my job to tell students when it's time to hand in homework So I have to have a little sub a soapbox moment here. I think that Because I was a middle school teacher I understand that we want our students to be responsible, however We're talking about teachers who literally refused to say Okay, it is time for you to hand in your homework that there was supposed to be some sort of magical moment that students just knew Maybe it was part of the class of basket or something, but really is that the hell you want to die on? I mean, honestly, I am so scatterbrained sometimes that I have right things on my hand like I'm 15 Because I know that between the time I'm in this room in that room. I'm gonna forget them So how are we supposed to expect a hormone laden child to not know when it's time to just hand it in everyone? We've got so many distractions I really really do not think that you are weak as a teacher if you simply say I need the homework right now And even to say it a second time somebody was spacing out by the way. We're turning in the homework now It's just you're just being a nice human being honestly now Yes, you can tell students and you still don't get the work But I'm saying if that's the problem in this one student school because the teachers are digging their heels in on that They don't want to say that it's time to turn the homework in yeah, even in grad school. You've got to You know just say prompt them a little bit So I think that that's kind of a ridiculous policy But my bigger point on option two is find out exactly what is happening in school And I think it's definitely worthwhile to have a meeting with the teacher Because a lot of times kids will come home and say oh Well, she doesn't let us do this this and that and I know as a teacher kids can misrepresent What you do and what you say they can misinterpret or Miss they can miss a lot of the nuance in what you say So it would be great to have a three-person conversation about in the teacher's classroom Ideally so that you can say where do you hand the homework in it? Maybe that the student has just Misunderstood all year where they're supposed to turn something in or if you're having students hand things in digitally There could be some confusion with how that works So just make sure that you the parent the teacher and the student are all working with the same facts that you are all Talking about apples and not some of you talking about oranges. So Okay, I just got a good comment the conversation about engagement needs to proceed the conversation about accountability this Okay This is a big topic because We could very well be dealing with a student who is bored to tears in school especially if he aces all of his tests and There is a much larger conversation going on among educators about whether or not homework should even be assigned whether or not We should even be giving grades and And whether or not students are really engaged in their work I think that is a valuable conversation for sure. However, right now What we're dealing with is is students who are working within a current system and may end up having More serious consequences because they can't get those executive functions in order They can't just do the basic compliance stuff of just turn it in on this day when the person says it and You know, I know there's a lot of debate over whether there's enough value in that I personally think there is we're quick sidebar we're Waiting to buy a house right now and the bank just called us today and said that the seller's agent still hasn't turned in her paperwork And so the whole thing might be delayed and I thought you know what compliance like just basic When my vet gives me medicine to give my dog and I don't comply he stays sick So I really think there is some value in a person developing the skills that they need whatever they are to be able to Do the thing that they're supposed to do when they're supposed to do it so With that said find out what's happening at school have a conversation with the teacher make sure everybody is clear at least what the Expectations are and also, you know, sometimes the kids think that the teachers are more rigid than they are I know don't think I can speak for all of you But let me know if you agree with this if there is one tiny little change We can make that's gonna get that one kid who never turns any work in to turn it in Are we gonna do it because really it's just you know If it's something really small and not that inconvenient then I know I want my kids to turn stuff in so You know, I think a lot of times kids are intimidated by certain teachers and they're afraid to ask so Sometimes if you just say hey, can I can I do this then the teacher will be like fine Hang on one sec Okay So that's the second thing first thing is strategize with your student for what can be you know What you can do and second is find out what's going on at school So we're all talking about the same thing the third option is to let him suffer the natural consequences and this is something a lot of parents Don't want to do a couple of months ago on my site I reviewed a book called the gift of failure By Jessica Leahy and I put a link to it on this download a lot of people saying yes to that with those hearts So if you're new to periscope these hearts are when people tap the screen. That's just a way of saying it's like a thumbs up Or a like on Facebook So the premise of this book the gift of failure is that far too many parents want to rescue their children from any kind of pain or consequence and so We will sweep in at the last minute and make everything okay, and then they don't ever learn because we have rescued them And so and and yes on that post that I linked to I interviewed her We had a nice long talk on the podcast and she talked about her own experiences I asked her my own questions as a parent about my own doubts about really can I just let them fall? It's the whole idea of when your kid is walking Do you let them fall down or do you catch them every single time? And how does that facilitate learning and so if we're talking about a sixth grader? I feel like middle school is such an important time for kids to actually make some of these big mistakes and then Pick themselves back up when I was in eighth grade. I got a D in algebra. I was put in eighth grade Algebra and I didn't do what I was supposed to do and I got a D And we had a meeting and they decided to take me out and have me start again as a ninth grader And I was pretty embarrassed because I was you know one of the really smart kids in my school and all my friends were in it And and I got put back into pre-algebra But that was a good experience Exactly middle school. There's not a whole lot of lifelong consequences for screwing up in middle school So let them make their big mistakes because high school, you know permanent record It's you know high transcripts that are going to college and so You know honestly when I got into high school, I took five math classes I doubled up on math my sophomore year so that I could be in calculus with my friends as a senior I don't know if I would have been that motivated Had I kind of been able to if my mother had gone and said please keep her in algebra We can get a tutor and we can get her caught up. I don't think I would have had the math foundation first of all I really learned it well when I took it again as a ninth grader But if she had you know just taken over for me anyway So one one thing you could do is just Let it let it go let him completely fall on his face as a sixth grader There may be kind of serious consequences. He may not get into the advanced groups next year But if you let I think if you let his teachers know ahead of time, this is what I am planning on doing Please give him consequences. Sometimes we've got teachers who are going to be like Oh, we'll just let it go this time and then it's like no we want to do that give consequences So We're having problems with grades 11 and 12 and that's see here's the thing with grades 11 and 12 with the natural consequences I think there's everybody's all freaked out about college and you know What if they don't get into college and how they're so close to graduating? How can I let them right? How can I let them fall down now because it could mean not getting into a good college? So maybe they don't get into a good college think about all the adults you know who Got into a good college and dropped out and then went to a different thing and had a whole different situation And they think right and they think I learned an important lesson then You know you got some students who are ushered all the way through until they finally get into that awesome college and then We have college professors who are saying they're dealing with helicopter parents in college Parents who are calling for their children in college to advocate for a higher grade or let him make up this missed homework Can you imagine? I mean I think this is this is becoming a really really big problem When does that stop at some point they have to fall down at least a little bit So letting him suffer the natural consequences as a sixth grader. It may be an option. I would definitely say Yeah, Ruth, I want to talk about your situation this drama chick here who's commenting. She is a 12th grade English teacher and She's pretty tough on them and what she's told me is that some of them Are are not failing necessarily but are getting pretty low marks from you for the first time in their school careers And they're flipping out, but they're what's ultimately happening is that they're starting to work a little bit harder. So I Think we need to not be so afraid of Failure Okay, good. I know I got that that situation right okay last option And I really really do think that this is not for everybody, but when I read this story I Felt like it was You know a possibility for some people and I know that Hang on one sec Okay, I know that this is not for everybody. I don't think this is for me Option four is consider homeschooling When anybody ever suggests homeschooling to me I kind of right just Mommy likes her alone time very much I don't know that I could be home alone with my kids all day, but I read this article that I linked to in this Document called what we did when our son was failing school and this was kind of the Thank you. This is kind of the engagement issue. This is somebody who had an eighth grade son Who was just hated school? I mean it was the same kind of situation though. He could test well, but he just Really dreaded going really dragged his feet and and just they noticed that his Personality was just starting to go down and down and down in terms of the light that was inside him And they they thought about it for a while and they decided to give it a try They made the arrangements that they needed to to have him Finish the school year they pulled him out part way through the year haven't finished the school year with an online program He's a baseball player, so he was pretty involved in athletics and was able to get some support there anyway It turned out really well and this mother talked about how guilty she felt when she looked back on the last four years when she had started to notice a change in him and how she avoided She avoided homeschooling because of the inconvenience and Not realizing how really good it would be for him and how how How much of a good option that could be and how much of his original personality would come back out? And it also ended up making him very self-motivated and very self-directed, so I Do not have a lot of expertise on Homeschooling but it's I think it could be that it's just not a good fit for your child the school that he is in so those are my four suggestions and There is a if you go to cult of pedagogy.com slash Periscope you'll have a link to that document Thank you all so much for coming and Thank you, thank you, and I will be back next week and If you have never come to my website cult of pedagogy by Ruth CULT OF PEDA GOGY Lots and lots of stuff for teachers and maybe we will talk about that homeschool issue some more Some other time because it's a pretty hot topic. Have a great night everybody and now as always I will attempt to turn this off, which always takes me forever. Have a good night. No, that's flipping swipe down