Note from MMM: This guest post was written by one of my favorite people in this entire world: My daughter.
I just finished my second year as a junior-high English teacher. I am extra enjoying my summer vacation because of how much I worked last year. What kept me at my job hours before school started and hours after? Planning planning planning! So after hours and hours of planning, of course my students give me a standing ovation at the end of each period, right? Right? What I usually get from those dear 13-year-olds is a whole lot of whining.
Luckily my students’ whining is usually phrased as a question that I’m sure parents hear quite often—WHYYYYY DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS?! What has seemed to stop the whining in my classroom is to give them a detailed explanation of exactly what the activity will teach them and why it matters. This has resulted in other kids stopping the whining themselves with a “Ms. (Secret Identity) ALWAYS HAS A REASON!”