Exhibition time and end of the year grades are primary moments to consider students’ goals and how they can align their actions and choices to achieving those goals in a way that is manageable and appropriate to their needs and understandings of the world.
Now is a primary time for meaning making. It’s not the time for guilt or remorse, but it is a time to help students evaluate the decisions they have made and to help them consider some strategies for how to make decisions in the future that are more in line with their own goals.
This is the key. They should not change their behavior and become motivated because we are frustrated with them. They shouldn’t become more compliant with our norms because otherwise we are angry.
The reason to fall in line with our community norms and expectations is that we are tailor-made to help each young person achieve short and long term goals.
We have a big ask. This is what makes the advisory model different. Your challenge is nothing less than to motivate and move each individual young person we serve. Each student. One at a time.
Gabriel
School for REAL: A School Design Blog 