"Is the teacher fair?"

So I chose my best and worst-behaved classes and passed out a survey asking if I was a fair teacher. It's obviously a simple yes or no question, but I told them that they could elaborate if they felt the need.

I assumed that my "bad" class would be really negative. I knew there would be a couple kids who said I was fair. There are a few good eggs who got stuck in my 6th period class... poor things. What was shocking though, was that a lot of the bad kids also said I was fair. I would love to dive deeper into why that may be. But I'm baffled. Obviously I know I'm fair. I don't hand out undeserved consequences. I don't hold grudges outside of class... or even inside of class. I try to call on kids to answer questions after they get in trouble. I don't want them to think that I think they're bad and unworthy.  But we all know how kids are, especially when they get in trouble. "Fair" is not a label they normally give authority figures.

I guess what was less surprising was that my "good" class also labeled me as fair. I hand out next to no consequences in there. No need to expand on that.

What I expected to get but didn't get a lot of was negative feedback from the trouble-makers. The kids who usually say, "Ms. B be mean," are the ones who ALWAYS get in trouble. No! I'm not mean... only to you... because you refuse to behave. And only if you define mean as handing you the consequences listed on the wall at the front of the room. You know, the ones that correspond with the rules posted on the wall at the front of the room. But I digress... while I allowed their responses to remain anonymous, the shockingly low number of "unfair" responses tells me that a lot of the bad kids know why they get in trouble.

Maybe there's hope that they will trace the cause and effect back far enough to stop themselves before they disrupt the class....