A few weeks ago I was at an event to kick start Homecoming. Since it is a shared campus all the schools in the building were present in the auditorium. At the beginning of the ceremony, the mistress of ceremony(mc) publicly acknowledged the respective administrative body of each school.When the names of a given school administration were called the student body was strangely quiet. They were even a few "boos" scattered here and there. I was both mortified and embarrassed! The students have clearly made known how they feel about their administrators. Can it further be elaborated that this was how they felt about their school........teachers included! I could not help but to think.......Have the adults in that given school failed to connect with the students?Is this a school on the brink? I was deeply troubled. If this is the current reality, can it be said that those students have a school? Is there learning taking place in the classrooms? What good is it if the students don't feel "good" about their school? What are they really trying to tell us? Are we listening? What can we do about it? The students have stopped cheering. Who will champion their cause? Let's get the students cheering again!
For the last few weeks I have been teaching my heart out. In planning and delivering my lessons I gave my best. All the knowledge, techniques, skills, and yes the "bag of tricks" amassed over the years were brought into play. I thought I had it all covered but alas was I wrong! I was confident that I could step in and make changes immediately. This was far from the truth! How many times have you underestimated the situations that you are experiencing? What was your initial reaction? How did you move forward? Why was it important for you to find a resolution? Did this experience impact your future actions? This year I have been given a unique population and was asked to help them achieve their academic goals. Initially I had declined but later decided to accept the task. After teaching this group for the past few weeks I gave them an assessment. I was floored when I saw the results. They did horribly! Where did I go wrong? I was tempted to take this personally. I am of course a perfectionist! This however was the wrong approach. In today's world we are being expected to own failure.....If the students don't learn, the teachers didn't teach".....how often have you heard this? I can say after teaching my heart out, I knew they got it based on their feedback on exits, classwork, conversations, and discussions. There is an excellent classroom climate, teacher and student share a commendable rapport, students have been provided with the necessary tools for working.......so exactly what went wrong????.... After carefully and thoroughly reflecting, I came to the conclusion that these students have gotten accustomed to failure and in fact look forward to failing. They have been so beaten by prior experiences that they are living other's belief for them. Nothing is more powerful and damaging than when students believe their teachers "don't expect them to pass" and it's business as usual! Currently, my agenda is to change this paradigm. I am so happy that I am experiencing this "challenge". I am in absolute agreement with Rita Pierson: Every Kid Needs a Champion!
