I brought in banana cake to eat before school. We had revived Secret Santa although heavy absenteeism and probably previous confusion kept the number of presents down. That worked out in our favor, since the Principal arrived in my room very early in the morning. When she arrived, all students were seated and listening. Bits of suspicious banana cake and a few random presents were scattered around, but my co-teacher and I were busy discussing administrative issues with the students while the Principal watched. I’m glad it didn’t look or sound like a party. Later that day, we sacrificed tutoring time and some of our last class to incentives and rewards for better students. Students without recent disciplinary infractions got to play games, use electronics, and start movies. I guess they will have to rent those movies if they want to see the endings, but the close of the school day allowed for a treat.

Eduhonesty: I enjoyed Friday incentives for the same reason I enjoy Saturday tutoring. I had a chance to talk with small groups of students. This bell-to-bell, block-schedule instruction flies in the face of research on children’s attention spans. Generally I think America’s children need more breaks and exercise than they receive. I was glad to get a break, a chance to look at pictures and selfies on phones while finding out about older brothers and sisters I remember. We had some fun. We did some team-building. The New Year will work better because of silly selfies, I’m sure of it.