You know I guess I am a helicopter. I don't mean to, really. Sometimes I feel that I have been forced into the role, sometimes. I remember a student I had last year that could not bring a pencil, a textbook, etc. to class. Sweet kid, but totally and absolutely inept, absent-minded, etc. I did everything I could to get him to be somewhat responsible: good guy, bad guy, understanding guy, so on and so forth. I just had to give up. I went to another teacher on my team, and exasperated, I told her of my problem. She looked real sheepish, and wouldn't answer my questions straight on. I pressed her, and she admitted it was partly her fault. How! I asked. "Well, he's just such a sweet kid, and I feel so sorry for him, I just give him pencils, paper, and hand him his books when he doesn't bring them. Arrrrgggghhhh!! This teacher was undoing all of my work everyday.

That leads to another thing in teaching styles, classroom management, etc. You have to decided which battles are worth it. I have a pet peeve: students who cannot write their first and last names on a piece of work. I started off with this as a classroom rule, and took points off for them not doing it. Is it not reasonable for me to expect 6th graders to know, and be able to write their first and last names on a test? A homework assignment? I used to take points off for this, but I just had to give up. It wasn't worth it, there is only so much of me to go around, especially exerting energy on something like this. (I had one kid at the mid-term of the first 9 weeks grading period who had a zero for a grade, no work handed in at all. He had been handing some of it in, but under the nickname he was known by, and he nor the other kids informed me of this.)

I really want to be the consultant. I have to work on that.