After 8 years at school

This year I am teaching year 8. You would think my students had school kinda under control by now. After 7 years & 8 weeks at school you would think they know the general rules & expectations of how a classroom runs and can work independently to complete work to an acceptable standard. Alas - I am beginning to think I have set my own expectations of my students way too high.

I am trying to allow my students to be independent self managing learners. However I am finding that I am backtracking, explaining, re-explaining and using wait time over and over again. Small things bug me - like not following instructions and calling out. I know why these small things happen - it's because I talk to much, or I give too many instructions at once -this is something I need to work on. It's the bigger things that have been learnt over 7 years at school that I am struggling to fix.

I want students to have choices and decide for themselves what tasks they should be doing, to be able to come to work shops when they need, and work collaboratively with each other. Instead I am getting 101 questions. What should I be doing? What do you think? Is this right? Does this look okay to you? What should I do next? What are we doing next period? What do you want me to do? Just tell me what to do! These questions are from ALL level of students - low level to my GATE students.

For 7 years of their lives they have been told what to do, where to sit and what is happening next. Given the freedom of choice they are lost.

By the end of Year 8 I would love my students to be critical, creative, caring and reflective thinkers. I would also like them to be able to manage themselves to complete a cycle of inquiry and produce something they are proud of. I want school to be somewhere they want to be and are excited about the things we are learning about. I want things to be authentic, hands on, filled with creativity and FUN.

I have high expectations of my students. I believe they are all capable of these things - whether high learning needs students who are not expected to pass level 1 of the curriculum or my GATE students who need extending beyond their years.

How I am going to do this is going to be a journey. It'll either break me or make me as a teacher and as a person. Step one on this journey is establishing a joint understanding of what managing self really means. Back to the drawing board for my class, and back to square one for me.

What do you want students be capable by the end of Year 8?