A few weeks ago in our English staff meeting we were discussing a chapter from the book Love and Logic. The particular chapter we were discussing was about a principles school vs a systems school. Basically do our schools operate out of a system based on agreed upon principles with individual consequences or upon a specific list of rules and stated consequences.

We, of course, ended up on the topic of our students in the classroom setting and discipline and where our school falls in the two categories of schools from the chapter. As we were talking about the students and our unmet expectations and how to respond to those one of the managers stopped us and asked us to write down the three most important characteristics of a student for us. After doing that, we all shared our thoughts.

It was amazing. Not one of us had the exact same expectations of our students and yet we were discussing principles, discipline, and the classroom atmosphere as if we were all on the same page. It was a good reminder to us that we do indeed have different expectations and therefore different responses in the classroom and that we need to make an extra effort to communicate those to our students. Too often we assume that the students know more than they in reality do.  

So what are your expectations of your students?