Response situations are inevitable.

Reaction situations are avoidable.

Among my most regrettable moments in the classroom (in life) are those in which I reacted, when I should have responded. As one who reflects as a way of being, such replays sting and stick, and I find myself languishing in the regret of the reaction, vowing to do better next time, for there will always be a next time. Response situations are inevitable in the classroom and in life. We work and exist with humans. There will always be behaviors to which we will respond. But, response situations do not need to be reaction situations. I can (of course, not always easily) control my own behavior in answer to another’s. I can respond. I do not have to react. I have a choice. And while the idea of “choosing” makes simple (maybe overly simple) the real struggle we experience when faced with this “choice” in the heat of the moment, it is decidedly not simple. It is hard “human work” not to react. Such toil takes tools.

Recently, on our morning walk and talk, my wife, a middle school art teacher, shared her idea for such a tool to use in the classroom this year.

I found it to be a simply brilliant approach (tool) to the messy human work we find in our classrooms, for it brings the kids into the work of “better.” It forges a partnership with them in hard, but necessary, work of building better connections and community in the classroom.

Response Cards

The What

This is what “Response Cards” will look like in my classroom this year. Nothing fancy. They don’t need to be. They are just a simple tool.

I will hand each of my kiddos an index card to complete, which I will then collect, keep, and consult when necessary (response situations).

The How

This is how we will go about creating the cards. Once I frame the purpose (see below), I will lead the process.

First, we will consider and capture, as a class, the behaviors that help our work and the behaviors that hinder our work. It might look something like this on the whiteboard.

Behaviors That Help	Behaviors That Hinder
* *  * * *	* *  * * *

Of course, before I start recording on the board, I will have had my kids record their own ideas as individuals, share and compare with an elbow partner, and then, we will begin constructing our class list on the board. I value and put into practice whenever I can the progression from individual to partner to class. That does not mean it’s the only way. It’s simply a way that I have found to be effective.

And while I can only at this point speculate on what my kids may come up with, here are some “hindersome” behaviors I anticipate making the list.

• Late to class
• Not prepared
• Not listening
• On phone
• Off task
• Being disruptive (this could probably be broken down many ways)
• Disrespectful
• Lack of effort
• Sleeping
• Anxious, stressed, upset, etc. (I will speak to these below)

The list goes on. And as I suggest above with “disruptive,” there are many general behaviors that can be broken down into specific behaviors. I intend to let the kids lead as I listen and list. Yes, I will give my two cents, but I primarily want the kids to generate the list based on their own ample experiences in the classroom. A note on the last of my list above. I included and will include them on my list when I do this with kids, but I will be careful to frame such things as things that can get in the way of our learning, not as “bad” things. In fact, as I discuss in the frame below, none of these are necessarily bad things; they just aren’t ideal things when it comes to our work. But their enduring presence in the classroom suggests they are real things–human things.

Next, I will ask my kids to reflect on their classroom experiences from the past, and as they do, I will ask them to identify some of the “edges” from those experiences where they have exhibited behaviors that have hindered learning. I will then ask them to consider which behaviors are most likely (based on their self-knowledge) to show up in our work this year. From there, I will ask them to identify (at least) three behaviors to add to their cards.

And then, we will pause to consider and capture, as a class (much as we did with the behaviors above), responses that help the situation and responses that hurt the situation.

Responses That Help	Responses That Hurt
* * * * *	* * * * *

My thinking here is that some of the kids may have a hard time coming up with responses (despite their ample experiences), so by coming together as a class to discuss what works and what doesn’t, we are creating a resource for them to consider as they complete their cards. Perhaps more important than the resource is the discussion that we will have around responses, which was also the case above where earlier we discussed the behaviors. Importantly, the resource is simply a guideline for the kids as they create their own personalized Response Cards. They have to work for them, or they won’t work.

What if they say to “ignore the behavior”? This question popped up in the preview of this post on Twitter. It’s a good question. I anticipate some of my kids will do exactly that. The simple of it? I can’t. It’s a behavior that is hindering our work (learning), and I have to address it. I have to respond to it. And doing nothing (ignoring it) does not help. And let’s be honest for a moment…well, I’ll be honest for a moment. I have that trick in my bag. I have ignored behaviors (too many times). It was easier. But easier is rarely better, and here I am looking to build better. True, I did avoid reacting by ignoring, but also true, I did not help by not responding. In fact, I likely hurt. I can do better. These cards are not only for the kids. They are for me. They are going to help me correct one of my hindersome, human habits–avoidance. I will be honest with my kids about this.

How can I possibly manage so much information with so many kids? This was another good question from the preview. Many of us in the secondary world have one-hundred-plus kids in our days. That’s a lot of kids; that’s a lot of cards. My short answer: don’t. Don’t manage it–at least not all of it at once. It’s unrealistic–and unnecessary–to approach this from a “must-know-all” angle. The cards are a resource. More importantly, they are a mutually and inclusively developed resource. We made them with our kids for our kids–for our classroom community.

As such, the cards are there when we need them. When John’s behavior is telling me something (behavior is communication), I need to listen and respond. And the cards (the anchor) are there for my use. I am not suggesting we run to our desks and consult the cards every time John “speaks” to us. I am suggesting that I bear in mind the resource that will be available to us (John and me) when we continue (ideally, privately) the conversation around a particular response situation.

As I think ahead, in many situations, we won’t need the cards. Most of us have learned how to respond in helpful ways, which for many of our kids will be the responses they list on their cards. We are not trading in our craft for respond-by-the-number cards. We are simply striving to better meet our kids where we find them, and the cards are there to help when we need them. On some level, as with many things in our work, the process (making the cards) is more important than the product (having the cards).

The Frame (The Why)

I believe in frames. When we frame our work in why, we give purpose to our shared pursuits in the classroom. Here’s how I will frame the “Response Cards” for my kids this year.

Our work is human work. And human work is messy. Anytime we bring humans together to work towards a common end, we encounter challenges that will hinder our progress toward that shared end. In here, that end is our learning. Each of us will have the opportunity to grow and learn in the coming days. And each of us, in our own ways, will contribute to the mess with our human habits.

More plainly, in our journey ahead, there will be behaviors that hinder our work, behaviors that I must address. My experiences in the classroom have taught me this. You will inevitably do things that will impact your and others’ opportunities to learn in here. You will be disruptive. You will be on your phones. You will be off task. I know this. You know this. These are the things that happen with humans in the room. Doing such things does not make us bad; they make us human. But when such things get in the way of learning–and they do–they must be addressed. They become the mess I must address. And for that I need your help. For how I address such things determines how we move forward. See, much as your behaviors can help or hinder, my responses can help or hurt. So, I am going to ask you to help me help you–help us–navigate the messy miles ahead.

Here’s how we are going to do it…

The Fit

All that said (which is likely too much), you have to make the Response Cards fit you. I believe in “The Fit” as much as I believe in “The Frame.” And here the “Frame” is really the entire post. This is how I plan to use the Response Cards, not how you should plan to use them. Yes, please, use whatever I have shared, but only use what fits you and your kids–or it won’t work. My wife, the one who came up with the idea, will use the cards differently than I. She and I know that we have to make things our own. What works is what works for us. So, please, make it work for you.

Well, all, hopefully this helps any of you who are considering the cards. I am sorry it ended up being such a long post. Special thanks to my brilliant wife for inspiring my latest better. Happy Monday.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.