Below are instructional writings for you all to read. Photocopies will be distributed in class. The images are from the manga Blame!, which is set in the literalized feeling of public education.
The Mirror and the Mountain
Short URL: https://goo.gl/iHxeYo
TL;DR — Stop shifting the blame in this course. Take responsibility for the choices you’ve made, or accept that your frustration and lack of learning is the choice you’ve made.
Crossing the Rubicon
Short URL: https://goo.gl/Eoodje
TL;DR — Every time you break the rules of the classroom, including the requirement to focus on course work at all times, those failures will be recorded and shared with parents, counselors, administrations, etc., from now until the end of the school year.
Remaining Calendars
RE11 Short URL: https://goo.gl/EtFTCR
AP11 Short URL: https://goo.gl/KpwJoF
This course calendar frames each day for the rest of the year. Don’t forget the other one.
Quick Guide to Stakeholder Involvement
Short URL: https://goo.gl/Ax3ufq
This expands the original document to include students, who actually are stakeholders in their education.
…
If you have questions or comments about the documents in this post, post those below.
On the topic of Crossing the Rubicon – I think that on top of everything the template has, it should also have a section for the most prominent problem.
Such as:
“Most Prominent Problem: Talking to classmates that distracts from work”
“Most Prominent Problem: Spends too much time on the phone”
“Most Prominent Problem: Does work from other class” – etc, & etc
This way, students know what their biggest distraction is, and those who want to work to better themselves know exactly what to focus on & work on.
Once that first bad habit of theirs is put under control, when their ‘Most Prominent Problem’ changes, they can now focus specifically on fixing that as well.
I just think that it could work well as a checklist, so students have an idea of what their biggest, most damaging issues in class are.
I agree that this is a great idea because it would give students actionable areas of improvement. Seeing these trends would connect multiple instances of a lack of focus, making students more aware of recurring problems. Without connecting these instances, students could tell themselves that the red days were isolated incidents and avoid taking responsibility for them. If there’s a clear pattern, it’s obvious that the problem needs fixing and the student will take responsibility when they see that there’s a building issue that’s interfering with their class time being well spent.
I agree with both of you. I think that we see this problem every day there is a substitute. Today, there were many non-English class related conversations going on. I think that many people need to rethink the decisions that they make. Character is what you do when nobody is watching.
I also think that just knowing we are being “watched” is helpful. The word watched sounds sort of creepy but just knowing that our actions are being physically recorded has the potential to make us act better or at least pay more attention to our actions even if its subconscious.
Actually, speaking of being watched, that is basically the central idea of the book we are reading: 1984, where “Big Brother” is essentially watching over you always, making sure that the citizens will always act as they are supposed to. While the idea of being watched does seem like a good thing to do, as I am sure it did to the citizens in the book during its timeline when it was passed, it also feels wrong. In addition, having someone like Mr. Eure or Ms. Olson watching over us takes away from the very idea of us being independent,
I do like the idea because it can hopefully serve as a good wake-up call to the students who need it, but in the article I think it said that the Rubicon files would have notes to record the poor choices made on a particular day. It shouldn’t be too hard to look at which problem shows up most often.
Excellent suggestion. It fits the idea of on-site triage, too — of figuring out what is most damaging and needs the most attention. I’ll see what can be done.