Spring Fever and Senioritis: Combatting Seasonal Apathy

Spring Fever and Senioritis: Combatting Seasonal Apathy

Whether you have freshman, seniors, or the grades in between, you know that it’s that time of year. The temperatures are rising – comparatively– and the days are flying by. Summer is drawing nearer and your kids, our kids, are over it (we might be just a little “over it” some days too). So how do we deal with it?

My seniors (yes, I claim them) already have one foot out the door, well beyond ready to leave high school behind and my sophomores (I claim them too) are longing for the days of all-night Netflix binge watching and sleeping well into the late afternoon.

However, we as teachers need to find the energy to kick it into high gear. Hopefully the routine has already been well established and our kids know what is expected of them. Now is the time to tap into those resources you’ve been pinning for months that you forgot about; it is the time to pull out new ideas and try new things. We need to do our best to keep our kids engaged until that very last day. Who said rigor had to be routine? Now is the time to take that chance and try that Socratic Seminar with your regular level sophomores (note to self) or maybe it’s just time to shake up a routine a bit, throw a new activity their way.

I know that if you’re anything like me, you’re almost rushing to get your kids through the unit that should have been completed a week ago, but that doesn’t mean every day has to be filled with the same activities every day has to be filled with the same activities every day has to filled with the same activities (you get my point).

I have been thinking about this for a while but between the reading for last week and the level of engagement this week, I figured it was finally time to do something about it. So for my action research, I want to tackle engagement, specifically regarding discussion. First I’d like to pose a question, then I’ll tell you a story.

How are you combatting this seasonal apathy? What new things have you tried to keep your kids engaged or what do you want to try?

Today, my seniors fell asleep watching Hamlet (*gasp* I know, it hurt me a little too. It was even the Branagh version). Not every single student, but over half of my class. I thought that maybe when we stopped for discussion they’d perk up because they were just sitting comfortably but when I paused for discussion, not a single sleepy, hooded head moved. Frustrated but empathetic, I made a split second decision and pulled in an activity I had experienced in one of my college classes. I had them each pick a line from Hamlet’s soliloquy then each student had to share it. My students were confused but complied.  Some students had the same line but I asked them to share it anyway which, after three students in a row had the same line, made them giggle. I explained that, though they had only taken a few minutes to find a line, they had discovered some of the most important lines of the soliloquy which was reflected in the repetition of the same lines. This activity was no show stopper but it was different from the regular routine of pausing for discussion and my students were awake and engaged for the rest of the class period.

I’ve found that even in higher level discussion with advanced students, accountability is still an issue. Each student still needs a part.

My goal for myself is to find different strategies and activities for discussion: some more complicated and involved for my seniors, and some more structured but just as rigorous for my sophomores.

Keep going strong out there!

Best,

Ms. Dawson