How to Create Active and Accountable Learners in Your Secondary Science Classroom [Episode 155]

Rebecca 0:00
One of the biggest complaints I’ve seen in my inbox over honestly the last three years is just the general student apathy and lack of resilience that really exists in our post pandemic students. And we started to tackle this topic related to kind of two categories. One was classroom management back in episode 89 when I brought on guest Casey, and then we also started talking about this related to resilience, back in episode 145 so if you’ve not listened to either of those episodes, I highly recommend. But today I want to talk about dealing with student apathy, specifically through the lens of getting students to be active in their own learning and held accountable for their own lack of effort. And I’m going to be honest you guys, some of you just are not going to like what I have to say about this. So first I want to say just remember that I am just one person, and this is just my opinion. As always, you are the expert on your students and your specific population and the environment that you teach in. You know all of that better than anyone else, and definitely not me, a stranger on the internet. However, on the other hand, before we dive in. I would like to encourage you, as I always do, when I feel like I talk about an episode like this that could be a hot topic, to maybe take the 30 seconds of the intro that’s about to play and take some deep breaths, especially if even just the title of this episode got your blood boiling, and consider opening your mind up to hearing some action items for this, and instead of maybe immediately getting defensive and thinking of, okay, well, there’s no way that this would work in my environment because of XYZ and thinking of this student that that would never work for or whatever, maybe just opening your mind to hearing some ideas that you could maybe ask yourself, What if, rather than jumping to defense mode? Okay, so if you are willing to do that, let’s get into it. This is secondary science simplified a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from it’s not rocket science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum rider, I am passionate about helping other science teachers love their jobs, serve their students and do it all in only 40 hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend, let’s get to today’s episode.

Rebecca 2:49
This is going to be a completely off topic statement, but I have to take a second to say it, because this is something I’ve been working on, on and off the last like month or two. I know this sounds insane that this would take me this long, but those of you who are on my email list or follow me on social media know that August I never have childcare, just because of college sitters going to college and high school students going back to high school and my youngest children’s preschool not going back until mid September. So August is always like a very dead time for me. Work wise, all I’ve got is like nap times and post bed time. So it’s it’s the scraps, and then a lot of you know, too, in September, I mean, it was crazy. Just we had multiple hurricane incidents, many days without power internet. So my productivity was less than normal. So something that should have been a lot faster for me took forever, but it’s finally done. I shared with my emails a few weeks ago, and I’m so excited to share it with you all too, and that is a free, virtual professional development course that I made so over the summer, many of you know that I revamped my professional development course, secondary science simplified. It was a course that I started, actually, before this podcast even existed, that I ran in the summers, and I had cohorts, and we you kind of had to join in a two week window, because we all walked through the content together all summer long. I did for two summers, absolutely loved it, but realized that the live nature of it just wasn’t serving as many teachers as it could. So I made it a goal this summer to rerecord it and set it up in a way that you could join whenever, take it whenever there’s no live components. It’s completely at your own pace, when is best for you. And I also decided to structure it how my curricula are structured, with a bundle and then like individual units. So I took each of the topics and made like mini courses, and then created a bundle option that’s discounted. Just so again, more options to serve more teachers make it more accessible. Well, after I did that, I immediately got people saying, Hey, do you have any free examples of what this is like before I invest in some virtual PD? I’ve never done virtual PD. I just don’t know what that would look like, what the format and organization would be. And I thought that is a great idea. And so I set about doing. It took forever to execute, but I finally did. And so I made a free course. It’s structured exactly like the paid options, so that when you download it, you can see the same folders, the same like kind of files, but it is called labs when limited. So basically, it’s a niche topic, but I really wanted to make sure that this was really specific to secondary science teachers, because y’all are my people. Y’all are who I wanna serve. And I cover four lesson videos. They range from 10 to 40 minutes. They are unlisted YouTube videos, and you get a PDF with the links to them. But we cover what to do when you’re doing labs, when you’re limited on time, energy, space and resources, and I walk you through tips for each one of those because it is a free course, I try to keep it really again, accessible and not overwhelming. There’s three tips for each one, and then I have support documents, two that are included to equip you with that. There’s a workbook, and then there’s a two hour virtual PD certificate that you can take and use to hopefully apply for CEUs, wherever you live. So I just want to make sure you’re aware of that. I’m not going to, like preface every episode for the foreseeable future about that. I did say in my email about to my list about this, and I want to clarify here too, there’s no catch here. There’s no like, pyramid scheme or like affiliate marketing. It’s not like you’re sitting down, you know, for a timeshare presentation at the end of it. It’s just free, and it’s totally there. So you can see if that structure and my learning style is good for you, my teaching style is good for your learning before, if you would decide to invest in the paid opportunities, and at the very end of the very final lesson, I have, like, one slide where I mentioned them. So that’s it. So I don’t mean to think there’s a catch, there’s no expiration. It’s not like this is going to become a paid offer. I have no plans to do that. I plan for it to always be free, always available, so it’s always there for you. So I want you to know about that. You can find it at, it’s not rocket science classroom.com/l,

Rebecca 6:52
W L, that’s labs Unlimited, but l, W L, that’s a little quick link for you, and I’ll have it in the show notes too. Okay, now let’s get to the topic of the day, which is, how do we get our students to be active and accountable for their learning. So first I want to talk about how do we get them active. Then we’re going to talk about how to get them accountable, and then we’ll answer, you know, some of your probably the most common kind of pushback I see on this is okay, but like, what if they fail? I’m worried about them. If they fail this test, they’ll fail the class overall. I’m worried about their, you know, mental state there. What about parent backlash, admin backlash, we’re going to cover that. Okay, but first, how do we make students active in their learning? Again, hot take. You don’t give them an option not to be active in their learning. You have to structure your class in a way that forces them to participate. You cannot have your class be something where they walk in, maybe they do their prime time bell ringer, then they sit there while you lecture, and you carry them through this lab, and you walk them through step by step of the activity, or whatever, the whole time. And you’re holding their hand the whole time. You cannot do that. Now, another preface I should have said, is my experience is 90% High School. So some of you middle school teachers may listen to this and know that your students may need more of the hand holding and support. Again, you know your people best, but I feel like for high school, they can handle a lot on their own. We need to give them no option to do otherwise. You need to be selecting instructional resources that are student centered rather than teacher centered. And I know oftentimes this sounds really exhausting to do. I have episode five on my very first episodes how to engage students without exhausting yourself. And then episodes 2930 31 and 32 four episodes all about student centered pedagogy and how to do that. So check out those old episodes. They’re still good, and everything I say there will kind of help you with making sure your instructional resources are like that. Now I know oftentimes the complaint I hear is students get so exhausted when all of the learning is put on them, and it’s like, yeah, I get it, because think about the alternative. When it’s teacher centered pedagogy, you’re exhausted because you’re the one who’s like on stage, doing everything and dragging them across the finish line. So, yeah, it is tiring, and that’s where I want to encourage you to mix it up. If you’ve seen my anatomy of a class period cheat sheet, it’s a freebie. I’ll link it in the show notes, all about mixing up your class period and having chunks where, yeah, there are breaks for them, where there might be some distracted instruction, where you’re really supporting them so that they’re not exhausted, and then it’s back on them. But it has to be every single day. The culture of your classroom needs to be active student learning, so that they know when they walk in they’re gonna have to do stuff. Y’all, I can name the teachers and the class periods right now that I had in high school 20 years ago, I can still know the teachers names in those classes where I knew I was walking in, and could just sit there and just receive and jot some notes, color a map and call it a day, and then I know the teachers that made us work. And your students know that too. So if you kind of set a precedent where you have allowed them to not be active, it’s going to take more energy to change that classroom culture, but it’s worthwhile doing it. You have to set the standard that they’re going to be engaged in it. Mix it up, though. They will get some little breaks here and there, where you’re going to maybe do a little lecture here, give them 10 minutes or you’re going to be going over something. But again, they have to be active. That’s another reason why I love popsicle sticks. I’ll link an episode I have about them in the show notes. My students know I’m going to be going through those twice a class period. They’re going to get called on and asked to engage, asked to share their opinion, and if they pass and say, I don’t know, I put their name back in the cup, like they know they’re gonna have to speak in my class. You have to just start forcing it and doing it every single day. So it becomes an expectation, like, Oh, this is how this class is gonna be run. You have to give them independent work too time to go off and do an inquiry activity, do a lab on their own, do some practice problems on their own or with a neighbor, and if you think, well, they always get off task, or they just start chatting, or they don’t actually do the work, they just sit there. Here’s some tips for that. Use timers. I’m all about setting a timer and being like, you have 10 minutes to do this. You have 15 minutes to do that. That’s one of the ways that I keep my pacing really precise and my transitions really tight. I have an episode about this, Episode 92 that I’ll link in the show notes. I also think giving students really specific goals for the time period is extremely helpful and making sure that they’re active and they’re using that time wisely. So say, Hey, I’m setting a 10 minute timer for you to do these 10 practice problems. Or in the next 10 minutes, you need to get through at least five of these practice problems on this sheet, and then I’m going to check in with you, or they’re working on a lab. Hey, by the end of today, you should have collected all of your data, inputted it into the class spreadsheet, and set up your graph. That is your goal for the end of today. And then when you set them free to work, you don’t just go to your desk and start grading stuff. You might get to that point where you’ve created a culture and trained your students well enough that you enough that you can do that, okay? Or maybe it’s like your AP Bio class, so they’re gonna they’re just, like, really highly motivated anyway. But that’s that’s not where we start. That’s the pinnacle. One day, most likely you’re gonna need to be walking around and monitoring and making sure my students were always laughing that I had supersonic hearing, is what they called it, because I would be walking around, I could hear someone on the other side of the room talking about what they’re waiting wearing to the Sadie Hawkins dance or like homecoming river. And I’m like, I hear you irrelevant. I would shout irrelevant. And I’d say their name, and they knew it, because I was always paying attention. They act very different if they know that you’re actually paying attention. So your actions, your willingness to be active in monitoring, will promote them being active and actually doing stuff. But you have to send them off to do stuff. You have to use instructional resources that are active and force them to engage. Now, how do we then hold them accountable on the back end for the learning? I think a lot of you have the active part of the learning down. It’s the on the back end. Well, how do we then hold them accountable afterwards? When we assess them, it starts with being super clear about what our expectations are. We cannot hold students accountable to some sort of standard for their learning. It isn’t clear to them what that standard is. I think that is the biggest problem here is students are not necessarily sure of what they need to be doing. It’s not crystal clear. It’s not consistently reinforced and reiterated over and over again, and so thus they make excuses for why they can’t do it, when really they can do it. We just have to make it very, very clear. This is one reason why, you know, I know we all often have to have some sort of, like essential question for our unit, some sort of, maybe guiding theme or phenomena. I think that’s great, but that I really am passionate about objectives for units. I divide all my units into three to six concepts, and then each concept has, typically five to 10 learning objectives or skills that are really, really clear, that could each be taken and make it an open response question. And I give these to students at the start of the unit, and they make their study guides from them, and they’re very, very clear. It’s not just like, you’re gonna know cells. It’s like, No, you’re and it’s not just you’re gonna know cell theory, organelles transport and, you know, mitosis, no, it’s like, it breaks down with those three concepts into like, 30 very specific objectives. So we get super, super clear with it. And I think when you make the objectives smaller, like that, it helps them to know it feels just more attainable for them. Okay? So you got to get super clear on your expectations, and then you need to set them up with the tools to meet those expectations. For example, I give them at the start of every unit, the cover page of my packets is this unit outline that has the unit title. It has. The essential question for the unit, it has the three, typically three concepts laid out, then all the objectives and skills written out. If it’s a quantitative science like chemistry, there’ll be maybe some practice problems to give them, like examples of those skills in written form. And then it has vocabulary they need to know there that is a tool they are given at the start of the unit. Everything aligns back to that. Every instructional resource, every question on their assessment, is going to align back to that. That’s a tool they have. Their only homework for me is creating a study guide from this page that they can then study out of. I don’t even care if they use chat GBT to write it. The key is that they have a tool that then they’re going to study and use that’s actually aligned to what the test is about and the instructional resources we’re using in the classroom. Of course, they will learn better through the process of actually making it on their own and not using an AI source to do it, but even if they have something, that’s the whole point is trying to equip them with tools so that they can learn how to study. But it’s not just this, you know, outline I give them. The other tools are, like I said, making sure that I am offering direct instruction in the form of lecture on the really tricky stuff I’m getting really clear up front. And then I’m making sure all my instructional resources that I’m using, the labs, that I’m selecting, the inquiry activities we’re taking time to do, the reinforcing practice problems we’re doing are all things that are setting them up to learn the objectives they’re not having to do this on their own, holding them accountable for the learning isn’t throwing a textbook at their face and being like, learn this. Good luck at the test. We’re giving them tools. We’re being so intentional with our lesson planning so that we’re equipping them with everything they need. The labs are worth looking over and studying from because they line up and they prepare them for the test, the inquiry activities, the creative art projects, the research things you’re having them do they all matter, because it’s all tools to meet the expectations. Again, if you haven’t listened to Episode 145, about resilience, I talk a lot about potty training and how that is such a metaphor. When I was potty training my youngest recently to building resilience in students. It’s not like I just look at looked at my two year old one day, took away his diapers and were like, You need to pee on the potty, and I’m gonna hold you accountable if you don’t pee on the potty and it goes on the floor in your pants. No, I taught him methods. I gave him tools for success. The first 10 days I was on that kid. I mean, it was like I was his stalker, watching him, watching for signals, helping him identify. Ooh, when you do this, that means you have to go potty. Or, hey, it’s been a while, let’s go potty. Or you just chugged an entire bottle of water. Let’s go potty, or let’s go potty before we get in the car, I’m giving them the tools and the support they need to train them, to train their muscles, to train their own minds, to know these are signs you’re doing the same when you’re giving them tools in your classroom to help them get to the point that they can learn this on their own. You’re still helping them here. So we’re getting clear on expectations. We’re giving them tools to meet those expectations, and we’re holding the line. You set the bar, you don’t change the bar. The rest is then up to them. That’s how you hold them accountable. So I’m not saying, if you say the test is Friday, you know, November 10, and you see that they’re not ready, I’m not saying you have to hold the test of Friday, November 10. Maybe you see like, hey, we need a little bit more time. We’re going to move this to next Tuesday, to give them a couple more days. You’re allowed to do that. I just mean, we’re not going to rewrite the test to make it easier for them, just because they are not doing what they need to do on their end, if you are selecting the right instructional resources for your class, and when you’re writing your lesson plans, you’re curing that, or you’re using a curriculum that’s aligned in that way, Understanding by Design is what I like to do again. It’s starting with the end goal and working everything towards that goal. Then you’re you’re doing what you need to do on your end that should give you the peace and confidence to then hold the line and have them rise to the standard. Now, your first question there is, then probably, but what if they fail? Okay, what if I do all this stuff, I’m so clear, I’m so intentional, you know, and then they fail the test, or whatever I think first and always, anytime I I’ve said this before, anytime I get any sort of negative feedback, and that can look like a student failing, it can look like a really low class average. Which side note, I was talking to a teacher on Instagram the other day, and she was asking me about her class average and what I shot for. I shoot for like a 70 to 75% average for my classes on my tests, typically, I find in my regular ed classes, it’d be closer to 70. Honors classes would be, you know, 75 to 80 would tend to be the average. But like that is a C average. Where I live, a 70% is a C. So that is what like the actual term average meets. So I am fine with that. Like I’m not looking for 90% averages. Now, if I saw averages lower than that, like one year, my sales average was like a 67 in my regular class, and I was like, oh. So first thing I ask myself is I do a self evaluation. I say, is there any way I could have been more clear on the expectations? So for me, that looks like going back to my unit outlines and making sure, like, Okay, were these objectives really, really clear? Or, like, was there a question on this test that everybody missed? Okay, clearly I what? Either I wasn’t clear on this or another question, is there any way I could have supported more on my end? So that’s what really got me rewriting some of the labs that I was doing in my sales unit and adding in more practice on organelles, even though they should already know these organelles from seventh grade life science, I just saw like I wasn’t giving them enough support. I was expecting them to be somewhere they weren’t, and so to get them to rise, I needed to add more support on organelles. Okay, so I made those changes. Another question to ask yourself, is is there any part of this assessment that was unfair? Maybe it’s the way the question was worded. Maybe it was a multiple choice question that might be better served as an open response, so that then there’s an opportunity to show their work. I feel really passionate about that on quantitative science tests, like in chemistry. I really don’t like when a multiple choice is going to require them to, you know, work out a math problem and then it’s like an all or nothing. They either get it or they don’t. I really prefer those to be open response so I can kind of follow along your thought process. Again, personal opinion, I know that’s not how, like, AP exams work and things like that, a CT test, science and stuff, but that’s the first thing I do if I see a student failing or a class not doing making the average that I would shoot for, I do my own self evaluation, and I hold myself accountable for what I could have done better on my end. Then I let them fail. Okay? I let them experience that. Because if you raise the bar and don’t hold it there and just always are going to give you know a curve, or you’re going to always let them retake it. They’re not going to rise the occasion, because they’re going to know they’re always going to get a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth chance. Now I think this is where you really have to decide what matters most to you. Does it matter most that they never experience failure or that they never learn accountability for their actions, like what lesson is going to serve them better in the long run? I’d rather have these 14 and 15 year old bio one students I have fail a test now with me and learn that they have to be active and accountable for their learning now then never experience failure, so I don’t hurt them in that way, and then they go on to whatever life holds for them, and they’ve never been held accountable. We end up in society with a bunch of 18 to 20 year olds who have no resilience whatsoever. And so that, to me, is what matters most. You may feel different, but I’m very passionate about letting them fail. I don’t think it’s in the world I would rather have my own children fail now, while they have so much support around them, then wait and never experience failure until they’re 20. Now, you might be thinking, what if they might fail the

Rebecca 23:10
class Overall, though, like you’re worried about that one test, one failure, should never be able to cause them to fail the class overall. You’re not grading enough, if that’s in your grade books not set up well, if that’s kind of how it’s done. And so you need to reassess what you’re grading and how you’re grading. I’m all about providing them an opportunity later on to replace the grade if they do the work to make it up for it. I think if you just give them an immediate retest, I think they lose the sense of really feeling the weight of the failure, and then it kind of loses its effectiveness. I’m not saying to be cruel with them by any means. That’s why I’m saying I’m okay with an opportunity later, like maybe it’s an extra project they do at home on their own time, where they have to come into tutoring and do it in person. So you know that they’re really doing it and they’re not cheating. Maybe it’s that their midterm or their final exam can replace their lowest test grade from the semester. That’s a great opportunity, because then it really pushes them to relearn the content they didn’t learn well and show that they had relearned it on that midterm or final exam. Okay, those are things that I think can be really effective tools to making sure that they are held accountable. We’re not lowering the bar, even if it means they fail, but it’s not causing them to have this permanent failure that may have some mental health repercussions that we don’t want them to have, you know, long term. So maybe now you’re not worried about them failing our class overall, because you have, you know, some backup plans or some opportunities for them in the future to redeem that lower grade, what about dealing with parent backlash? Because you, quote, unquote, let them fail. I think again, first, always self evaluate with any sort of negative critique own where you could have done better and will do better in the future, if there is anywhere to own, if not. You highlight the tools that you provided, the clarity and expectations that you gave them, the support you continually offered, and you outline that for the parents. I also think you go ahead and get in that in person, conference with them. I’m all about a face to face conference with parents, so you can talk to them about this face to face. I think people will be much kinder to your face than they will to a screen or to an inbox or to a phone conversation. So highly recommend that and emphasize to parents like you’re not out here to fail these kids, okay, but you are out here to hold them accountable for their learning, and if they aren’t doing that, then that is on them. And so these are the ways that you’re supporting them again. You hold the line with parents. You hold the line with students. When I switched to teaching at a private school, I was tasked with teaching a few sections of eighth grade science for the first time, and I was told I would be teaching physical science, which was a high school course at the eighth grade level, they were doing algebra. One in eighth grade, they were a lot of them were doing Spanish. One in eighth grade. They were trying to bring more high school classes to the eighth grade class opportunity level, so that then in high school they’d have more opportunities, you know, to take APS or whatever, which was fine with me, because I had taught physical science at a high school previously. I taught it to ninth and 10th graders, so I felt very comfortable teaching high school level physical science to eighth graders, but it was a shock for those eighth graders, and it was the shock for their parents. I don’t know how else to say it like that is, like the best word I can say for it, and I really had to put this whole process I’m sharing with y’all into action, like there were ways that I had to clarify my expectations. I had to add more tools to support these students, especially the students that were concurrently taking algebra one the math and the intro to physics section of physical science was a lot for some of them, so I had to offer some more opportunities for support. That’s when I started doing the daily tutoring option, and I had a lot of in person parent conferences. There was a lot of backlash. I had I provided the opportunities for students that continually were struggling and failing, but they were not stepping up. So I provided opportunities they didn’t take them. And at the end of the day, it was the first time our school had ever had any students fail a middle school class, or a class, I should say in middle school, because technically it was a high school level course they were trying to get credit for. Credit for, and there was not even a protocol at our school for what we do with these students, like, are they allowed to graduate eighth grade? Are they not? It was honestly a big deal, but luckily, I had great admin support. I had documented everything throughout the year. Admin had brought been brought into some of these conferences that were consistently happening over and over, and those kids were able to graduate eighth grade, but had to retake the class their freshman year with a different teacher who kind of took on a small cohort of them who didn’t pass it so that they could get the high school credit. So all of that to say again, I’ve been there. It’s not fun, but I will also say I’m so glad that first year that I held the line, that I knew that what I was teaching was appropriate for high school physical science, because I had had several years before that teaching at a public school in my state, I knew the expectations, I knew the level that was appropriate. They had asked me to teach eighth graders this high school level course. So I was holding the line, and I got a reputation for being a hard teacher, but a very fair one. And I’m grateful that I did that, because then every group I had after that, each year, they gave me less and less sections of eighth grade science, because it was not my favorite. But every group after that knew what to expect. I started having siblings. I started redeeming those relationships with parents that originally like did not like me and wanted me out of a job, you know, and that was because I held the line. And so this is one of those things that I think is really, really hard when you decide to plant a flag in the sand, but if you can hold it and not take it down, it will reap so many rewards, year after year after year, in your own reputation at the school, but also in your students lives when they leave you. I knew with these eighth graders, I was going to have them again for sure, their freshman year in biology, one and some of them I might see again in some upper school science electives. Maybe I wouldn’t see them sophomore year chemistry because a different teacher was teaching that at the time, but I might see them again their junior or senior year. And I was like, if I am just going to, like, fall honestly to the parent threats I was getting, and, you know, fall to the complaint to these students, then, like, what am I gonna do again next year when this all happens again? And so I’m really grateful I toughed out a very hard year in a very hard situation, and I hope you can experience the same now. Huge part of that story, though, was my admin support. So that’s where another kind of question and kind of last one we’ll address here, because I know this is getting long is admin backlash. You may not be as lucky as me in terms of your admin supporting you. My admin were doing an experiment to see if eighth graders could handle this class. They were the ones who said we’re going to have them do it. It wasn’t like I said the eighth graders should take physical science as a high school course in eighth grade. So you know they had to kind of support from there and stand by what they said, and I’m so grateful they did. If you are in a different situation where your admin are not supporting you, holding the line and holding the standard, I think you show them what you’ve done, just like we do with parents. You articulate the expectations, you show them the standards, and show them the level of the standards, and say, This is what the district requires of us, or the county, or whatever you have asked me to teach next generation science standards. This is what I have to teach. This is the depth I have to go in. This is the level. So what would you like me to do differently in the future to prevent this happening?

Rebecca 30:34
That’s what I think, is the solution. Here you put the solution on your admin. This is a new practice I really developed in the last year when it comes to handling conflict of any kind in any aspect of my life. Again, I always first self evaluate and just want to make sure, is there something I could have done better? And I do own that, if so, but then I articulate some facts, and then I put it back on the person, Hey, you tell me how I could make this right, or how I could prevent this in the future, or how I could have been more clear on expectations or supported them better, because this is the bar, and I can’t change what the next generation science standards say they should be able to do. So you offer solutions to me, or do you have any ideas for how to manage this problem that won’t force me to continually perpetuate this problem, because this is going to be a recurring thing. If I keep offering grace or making exceptions or making the test easier or curving them, it’s going to always be a problem, and then these same students are going to be a problem next year for their next teacher, and it’s just going to be so on and so forth. So I really think that is what you do in this situation, and if your admin ultimately don’t either equip you or support you. I’m not trying to be harsh, but it’s time to start looking for another job, potentially. Y’all, I think we far underestimate how much admin will make or break your job. Those of you that have had great admin, you know how much of a difference it makes. Those of you who have had bad admin, you may not even know what it’s like to have good ones. You may not even realize, if you have bad admin, how much it’s affecting your job and your day to day. And then some of you have very like average and so you’re not getting harmed by your admin, but you’re not experiencing Wow, when you have great ones. What a game changer it is. And so I think that’s something we really underestimate. And we’re actually going to talk more about that in next week’s episodes. I’m going to cut myself off. We’re going to be talking about what to do when you’re micromanaged, whether that’s by your admin your county or your district. So stay tuned, but that’s my recommendation with admin backlash again, reiterate what you do with your parents, and then ask them to help you come up with solutions. And if they don’t who that’s a big red flag, okay, but I hate to end on that negative note, but I got to wrap this up because of the time, so I hope this does encourage you to hold the line this year, hold the line with having your students be active in their learning and accountable for what they learn. And I know, especially this time of year, you know, you might be reaching the point at the end of the semester where students are panicking, maybe they’re whining, maybe they’re casting blame or asking for extra credit projects. So I hope this is an opportunity for you to evaluate what you’ve done, if you could improve, if you could provide more support or more clarity, and then move forward, really setting the bar and letting them rise the occasion. Because I truly, truly believe that they will if you hold the line, and again, if you need more support in this, I definitely recommend listening to Episode 145 it’s very adjacent to this, talking about resilience in our students. I will link that in the show notes, as well as all the other links I mentioned at it’s not rocket science classroom.com/episode, 155 and leave a review today if you haven’t already, if you’re ready to stop accommodating students, obviously, accommodate, legally, how you have to, but if you’re ready to, you know, start holding them more accountable for their learning, and take that burden off of yourself and put it back on the students where it belongs for our secondary science students, all Right, teacher friends, that wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to It’s not rocket science classroom.com/challenge to grab your classroom reset challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, Teacher friend!