Tell us about something new your school did this year that worked. Where can your school build on some momentum and success from this year? What did your children learn this year that surprised you? What did you see on campus that gives you hope?
At first I wasn't going to respond, but ended up sending this in. It far exceeds the maximum word limit and will probably not be printed. So I decided to post it here, and if it ends up being printed then great!
Many people ask if I enjoy teaching, and my response is
always, “I cannot imagine doing anything else and wouldn’t want to.” However,
this year truly tested my mettle because I had 10 and 11 graders preparing for
TAKS (as usual), 9 graders gearing up for STAAR, and advanced 11 graders taking
AP Language at the end of the year. That tripled the normal stress load of
standardized testing I normally endure in a school year. Therefore, when asked
what my students learned that surprised me or gave me hope I almost cried
because it was so difficult to see the silver lining through a rather difficult
year. Then I remembered that my own philosophy is not to teach kids how to pass
a test but how to become functioning members of society by building critical
reading, writing, and thinking skills. That led me to my end of the year exams.
Instead of a cumulative, multiple choice test of 100
questions requiring the students to conjure up names of characters throughout
the school year, I simply ask them to choose one thing we read, discussed,
thought about or experienced during the year and tell me how it shaped them as
an individual. The kids think they’re getting off with an easy exam but fail to
realize how much thinking is actually going into their essays especially since
I only allow them one sheet of notebook paper to write it. Here are some of my
favorite responses:
An on-level student who learned the hard way I do enforce my
no late work policy: “One of the things I learned this year was how to respect
my grade in this class. Mrs. X didn’t beg us to turn something in, if we
didn’t turn it in we got a zero. Knowing this it helped me think about my
responsibility as a student to know a deadline and meet it.”
A gifted and talented student regarding Fahrenheit 451 in comparison to The
Things They Carried and the many controversies over the Vietnam War: “…I
felt an overwhelming and conflicting argument spring up in my head over
censorship. I couldn’t fathom the thought of our free nation tainted with
absolutism philosophy…”
A monitored English Language Learner discussing To Kill a Mockingbird particularly
looking at the courtroom chapters: “…what I learn here was that we should speak
with the truth. Because the truth is going to come out in any moment and time.”
A special education student: “My favorite was Machiavelli. I
love how it shows you rules about being a leader and who you should trust and
shouldn’t.” (We compared “Morals of a Prince” to Julius Caesar in terms of what kind of leader Caesar might have
been and whether or not that merited his assassination. This particular student
was also one of the few who was able to fly through Shakespeare without
difficulty.)
Just like most public school teachers, I simply had to grab
a few essays to see this wide range of topics and learning levels. Overall, I
see tremendous hope just within these responses. These are the lessons that go
with my students when they leave my room, and I much prefer this to be my
legacy than having that allusive 100% pass rate on any standardized test.
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