New Year, New Boundaries: STUDENTS [Episode 253]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:01]:
Welcome to week 2 of a 3-week miniseries all about boundaries. As I said last week, a new school year calls for new boundaries so that you can have your healthiest year yet as a whole human being. I cannot emphasize this enough. What a whole human being means is that you realize that teaching is your job. It is not your life. Yes, it may be your calling. Yes, you may see it as like your ministry or like what you were meant to do. Or as the way you serve your community.

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:29]:
All of those things can totally be true, but it is not your life if you are seeing yourself as like a whole person. So we started this conversation last week by talking about boundaries with email, and this week we’re going to build upon that. So if you didn’t listen to last week’s episode 252, that’s a must-listen to. But today we’re going to kind of build upon that, but narrow in specifically on setting boundaries with students. and 5 ways I want you to do that this year. So let’s dive in. 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.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:10]:
As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, 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. The first boundary I want you to have with students this year piggybacks on last week’s episode, and that’s just your availability. You do not need to be constantly available to students. at all times. Actually, when we do that, we are training them to think that they are not capable on their own, and we want to equip them and empower them to do things on their own and to feel confident that they can, that they can do things without you in this life. Students are really resourceful and they’re so much smarter.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:07]:
Like, high school students now are so much, like, innately more smart and tech savvy and industrious. than I was. The problem is that they don’t believe they can do it, whereas I believed I could do anything. And also, like, I never wanted to engage in authority if I didn’t have to. So like, I was willing to figure things out on my own, and it was like a last resort. Whereas nowadays, kind of their default, their first gut instinct and reaction is to come straight to you, when really they are more equipped naturally than ever before to handle things on their own. So we have to give them the opportunity to do that by setting a boundary of not always being available to them. Of them not having access.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:45]:
And in a world where they have access to anything and everything at all times, this is such a beautiful thing to teach them, that they can turn off the technology, that they can unplug, that they can think without access to help at all times. They can do this, and we’re going to train them to do that. And that starts with us going first and setting the boundary of unavailability. The second boundary I want you to set this year is a boundary of respect. In this classroom, respect is going to be a non-negotiable. We are going to treat each other as human beings who are all deserving of being treated with dignity and respect. If you teach at a Christian or a Catholic or some sort of parochial school, you can say like, all people were created in the image of God, and because of that, they deserve dignity and respect. Like, you can tie that part in, but even if that is not your belief system, Most of us can stack hands that like all humanity deserves that, and so we are going to do that for each other.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:44]:
I will treat you with respect. I expect you to treat me with respect. One of the ways that we can respect students in turn is by setting clear expectations and communicating those to students of what we expect from them, and then consistently reinforcing the consequences that we’ve also clearly communicated. That shows them, hey, these are my personal boundaries. These are my expectations. These are my guardrails that I need you to work within. And I’m gonna train you in these, and I’m gonna show you grace at the beginning of the year as you’re learning, but I will hold the line. And that’s how you can respect me.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:19]:
And I’m gonna hold boundaries, but I’m gonna respect you by being a consistent person that you can count on and trust, like how I’m gonna respond. I’m gonna try— I’m doing this all proactively so that I do not have to be reactive with you. And when a consequence comes up, A time where you need to reinforce a consequence with the student, we do not make it personal and we do not make it public if we can avoid it. So we take them outside for the conversation. We don’t make it about them or who they are as a person. We make it about the choices that they have made. I keep thinking about this book that my 4-year-old is obsessed with. It’s all of the Danny books, Danny and Darla.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:53]:
What would Danny do? Or what should Danny do? There’s 4 of them total, but you get to make different choices throughout the book and then Danny’s day goes differently or Darla’s day goes differently based on the choices they made. And that’s something I’m constantly saying to my 4-year-old, and we can say to our 14-year-olds of like, this is not about who you are as a person. This is just a choice you made, and we can make different choices moving forward. So we keep it not personal and not public. Also training students with the boundary of like respecting space, not just us as human beings. I found that students are just like so entitled. We’ve gotten more and more entitled over the years, and they even feel entitled to the classroom space. They feel comfortable vandalizing things and drawing on things and Breaking things or not picking up trash or leaving things worse than when they found it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:40]:
We can train students, like, one of the ways you can respect me is respecting the space that we’re all learning in, and we want to leave it better than when we found it. And thinking like, when you drop that trash on the floor, consider others better than yourself. Someone has to pick that up, whether it’s me, the teacher, or it’s the custodian, or it’s another classmate, like in detention or whatever. And so think like, is your time more valuable than that person’s? Do you value yourself more than you value them? I know these are some like deep, like ethical, almost like societal questions, but I think they’re important to ask students. And I think if these students don’t have parents at home who are asking them these kinds of questions and holding them to this kind of like ethical, moral respect level standard, like they just don’t know to think that hard. They’re not thinking that hard when they’re dropping something on the ground, but when we can open their eyes to what it costs someone else to clean up their messes, it helps them to understand respect better. And that’s one way that you can hold a boundary this year is having them respect you as a human being and your expectations for the class and your consequences, but also respect the space that we’re all learning in, especially if you’re a floater and you’re moving to different spaces. Like that helps hold the standard even higher of like, we’re coming in here and we’re leaving.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:52]:
Like we need to make it better than when we got here. Third boundary I want you to set is just with the work you’re expecting students to do. I will never ask students to do more work than I’m already doing and vice versa. Like you are already doing more work than them, but you, they at some point have to do work. Like you have to hold the line. People are always asking me, how do I hold the line with making students engage and making them do their work? Like you just do it even when it’s uncomfortable. You don’t give them another option not to. You’re not sitting at your desk just crossing your fingers, hoping, you know, that they’re gonna do the work while you’re grading papers for another class.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:31]:
You’re monitoring, you’re walking around, you’re standing next to them until they pick up the pencil and write something down. You hold the line that they will do work in your class, and if not, there are natural consequences. They will fail the assignment, they will get a zero, they will have to come to detention or tutoring or whatever it may be. There will be a parent conference. Like, these things will happen if you don’t do the work, period. You can’t just come and do no work and expect to get by. That’s not going to fly in this class. Hold the boundary.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:00]:
You cannot take the test for them. You cannot complete the lab for them. They have to do their part. Episode 123, What to Do When You Care More Than Your Students Do. Episode 155, How to Create Active and Accountable Learners. And episode 223, What to Do When Students Simply Won’t Do Their Work. Those will help you if, if having your students get their work done is a boundary you struggle to hold. 4th boundary I want you to have with students this year is consequences.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:26]:
I’ve mentioned this several times this episode, but it needs its own point. Consequences are boundaries and they are healthy and loving to have. We need to teach them consequences and boundaries at all these different parts of their life so that they can respect other human beings and not constantly step over others. It’s all about like dignity of life here. Okay? So hold the line with the consequences and the more natural the consequence, the better. Like the, you don’t do your work, you get a zero. That kind of thing. That’s what we mean by like a natural consequence.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:56]:
For my children, it looks like I tell you like, hey, don’t climb on top of the, you know, that window, you’re gonna fall. They slip and fall and get hurt. Like, do I delight in them getting hurt? No. But it’s honestly kind of great sometimes because it’s like, okay, that was a natural consequence. I said you will get hurt if you do this. You got hurt because you didn’t listen. Now we repair and we kind of move forward, and then we can point back to this at a future time of like, remember when that happened? Let’s not make that same decision again. So have boundaries with consequences.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:24]:
And then the 5th boundary I want you to have this year with your students is grading. You do not need to grade everything. You don’t need to grade everything just so they’ll do their work. We work to learn. We don’t work just for a number. Is that motivating? Yes. And you are going to grade stuff, but students are going to do some self-grading, some self-checks. We’re going to do some peer grades.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:44]:
Some things will not be graded at all. Some things will be spot check, but you need to hold the boundary of like, I am one person with 150 students. I do not have the time to grade every single thing that your pencil touches this year. And that’s okay. And I’m going to hold the boundaries with the due dates of like, whatever that looks like for you. I personally never accepted late work after the end of a unit because at some point we have to move on with our lives. Other people can, are more flexible with that. Again, it’s whatever your capacity is in your season to receive late work.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:16]:
But hold whatever boundary it is, set one and hold it. I personally always told students, like, I can only grade so much because I want to make sure I get it to you within 24 hours. That’s really important to me. And I have a life outside of this, so I can’t grade every single thing. And I know that you have a life outside of this, which is why I don’t assign homework. Is there reinforcing practice that will help you? Yeah. But will I necessarily, like, make you do it? No, because I know you have a lot going on. Okay.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:43]:
So that is a grading boundary and a due date boundary. The other 4 boundaries to remind you were consequences, workload, respect, and just availability. That is the most important one to start out with. So your action step today’s episode, this is short and sweet, but I want you to hear it, is get clear about your expectations with students so that they will not walk all over you and what the boundaries will be. Because boundaries, they’re always going to try to cross them. So we have to be clear about what they are and we have to hold the line when they do. Okay. But it starts with getting clear about them.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:19]:
Hey, make sure you come back next week for the final installment in our 3-part New Year, New Boundaries series. We’re going to talk about setting boundaries with parents. As always, you can find the links to those episodes I mentioned in the show notes at itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/episode253. If you haven’t left a review for the podcast, I would love to hear from you. It means so much when those new reviews pop in. I would especially love to hear from you if you are ready to have better boundaries with your students this year. 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 itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/challenge to grab your Classroom Reset Challenge.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:00]:
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.