The end of Christmas break signals a time of depression in many of us. We have five hard months in front of us. The question invariably comes up, “Can I do anything to get the kids to bring more respect now in January or is it too late?”
For me, the answer has always been that I can’t do much to change them, but I can change how I react to them and I can announce that my assessment of them in this second half of the year will be different.
Why change how we assess them in January? Because a new way of being graded is the only thing that will attract a disrespectful class’s attention in January. When respect wains in our classes, we play the grades card.
In that interest, I recommend the program described in the next section of this series of four posts on how to survive January.
