Successes and Failures; Making and Breaking Habits

It's been a while since I wrote here, and since it's late and I do want to sleep, I'll make this brief.

I've definitely had a turning point (well, ANOTHER turning point) and a huge improvement in the way I'm fitting in at my school and with my class.  I feel like I've got a feel (however tenuous) for all the major aspects of the daily curriculum.  There are definitely some minor things to keep on working on, but I feel like I've had success in all three of the major areas and I'm slowly coming around in the afternoon.

I've had lots of good ideas, and tried to start some habits, but with so much going on, it's tough for me to keep things going.  I was having my class do a lot of self evaluation, but it has definitely fallen by the wayside.  I need to get back on to that.  They need to be able to think about the quality of the work they've done.  Constantly.

I've had some issues with behaviour lately, though I know exactly what's going on.  And it all falls squarely on me.  If the work makes sense and they are started off well by me, then things go well.  If I get lazy and forget to remind them about how to do something (like lining up) they don't do it properly.  It's beyond frustrating (I've never worked with children who can be so good one day and so rude and off task the next - or, really, 20 minutes later) to know that they need to constantly be reminded.  I guess I'm still struggling with trying to get them to level D behaviour (where they don't need to be told), but to be honest, is anyone ever really on level D?  Does it exist?  I had a conversation with one of my students a few weeks ago.  It was quite instructive.  He had been giving me troubles previously but was lining up perfectly.  I said to the class that he was lining up perfectly and that it was level C because he was told to do so.  His reply was: "I just don't want to have to practice." He was honest with him and really, what more can you ask from from children, but it still stings a bit that these kids wouldn't do the right thing without a negative consequence for not doing it.  Something to have to work on I guess, and probably just accept the reality for what it is.  Perhaps discussing that with the children and reasons behind rules might be a good idea.

It's bed time now and with my newfound attempts at having some sort of balance (or at minimum, enough sleep) I'm off.  Hopefully it won't be so long until my next entry.