Daniel is in school full time. I am working full time. Hopefully all this will get us somewhere soon.
Nevertheless, I am beginning to understand why anybody would stay with this job longer than their first year. Here's the whole sleazy story:
First of all, I go to at least five meetings a week for school. Some of these meetings require me to report the test scores of my students to show my accountability as a teacher. I stress so much about this. I feel like my students are darlings, they are funny, they are thoughtful of me, and most of them are able to catch on to what I'm talking/ teaching about but not enough on paper.
For the past two weeks I have been teaching multiplication and division concepts. I am pretty sure that they are getting it so I'm so excited when I gather them on the floor around me to start my lesson. So far so good. I figure "Okay, let's review for our test tomorrow. If I buy one ticket for $5 how much would two tickets cost?" I call on one little boy sitting in the back. He was raising his hand so I figured he knew. His response "Eight dollars. It's eight dollars!". I almost lost it.
(Just so you know we talked through it, pulled out the play money, I'm pretty sure he knows it now.)
The children leave, I vent to Daniel and my mom about how hard I'm trying, then I decided that I can only do so much. In Daniel's words "You can't take the test for them."
Next day, a little extra practice, a little extra encouragement. They take the test, which took about an hour. Stressed me out! After school I grade the tests and analyze the scores. My class was at 90% proficiency, which means 90% of the kids who took the test scored higher than 80%. All but about 2 or 3 students out of 26.
I couldn't stop smiling when I reported that score at my meeting that day. I felt like I had arrived as an actual teacher. Those smart little buggers sure fooled me. I guess all my hard work, missed lunches, and walks to my car in the dark parking lot (I hate that) after school are paying off.
I'm starting to think that good days aren't necessarily up to the 26 third graders I teach, it's most definitely up to me!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Way to go Annie! All your hard work is finally paying off!
Go you! I'm not a teacher, which I think is a million times harder than what I'm doing, but I have those days too when you put in all those hours and wonder what the heck it is for... and then, it happens! It really makes it a little more worth it. And I know you are a fabulous teacher, so go you!
Post a Comment