How to Motivate 7th Graders

In many ways, the 7th grade is my particular challenge this year. Although I go through rough bits with the other two classes, 7th grade remains a constant struggle for various reasons. Long and short of it is, they don't like me. I don't lose sleep over it at night, but when it became my duty to stay behind for 10 minutes with the middle school students who did not have permission slips for a field trip and when those students were only 7th graders, I was less than thrilled.

As it turns out, the few that did not have permission slips thought they were staying behind with Ms. C, a TA and parent of an elementary school student. Ms. C was coming late, however, so they saw my face as the smiling presence of the study hall. And all of a sudden permission slips started materializing! Their teacher continued to spread these rumors and all the missing permission slips made it into her hands.

Maybe it's perverse, but she enjoyed tricking them into coming like they should, and I enjoyed being able to motivate the lucky 13 to do something at last!