Some days you walk into the classroom with more enthusiasm than others. On especially enthusiastic days you may even feel invincible. “Every single student in my class is going to learn today.” I had nearly an entire week of these so-called “invincible” days and let me tell you…I’m exhausted. As teachers we all make commitments to our students that we will do everything we can to help them learn and succeed in our classes. However, the realities of our mortality and humanity often keep us from living up to this commitment. We can’t all be as strong as Abraham in our conviction, willingly throwing our sons down on a slab of concrete to be sacrificed. Nonetheless, there are times in all of our careers, days, weeks and sometimes months, where we are working with undeniable force to ensure student success. The question is; how do we sustain it?
Take Tuesday for example. Moving from class to class, group to group, and student to student, I worked endlessly with each member of my classes doing whatever I could to get them to reach our learning outcome. “Students will be able to create and solve a proportion in order to find whole populations from samples.” A straightforward and explicit learning outcome, it would seem that getting 100 % of kids on board wouldn’t be much of a task. What a false assumption. Regardless of the clarity in the outcome or in its preconceived simplicity, achieving 100 % student success is a dream that all too often doesn’t come true. You can try and try and try and you’ll get close, but like the Patriots of last season, defeat will come. More so, after the days where you seem so close to tasting victory you come back the next day to discover that half of the students who demonstrated mastery yesterday may be unable to do so one day later.
In no way I am suggesting that you stop striving to achieve ultimate student success. In addition, I’m not arguing that one day of instruction on a new topic ensures life long understanding. I’m simply saying that this work is hard.
Beyond the math and the eternal optimism I’ve tried to bring to the classroom this week, we’ve had an abundance of student issues that eventually take an emotional toll. Even Jaws from the old James Bond movies would shed a tear or two if he saw some of the atrocities that we have the pleasure of witnessing on a regular basis. (and he was one tough guy…his mouth was made of metal). From fights to gang activity to arrestings to domestic abuse to harassment…at times it can become overwhelming to maintain your passion for student academic achievement while trying to deal with their personal lives. How can I ensure that my students have happy and healthy lives with strong financial futures including agreeable salaries, full benefits, and a retirement account? As teachers we often discuss the successes and failures of our classrooms. How often do we have the tough conversations about what we’re doing to make sure that these students live rewarding and meaningful lives?
As inner city educators our jobs extend far beyond the content we preach. The new paternalistic schools as amazingly described in Tough’s “Sweath the Small Stuff” illustrate the need to not only teach courses, but character, values, and cultural capital. The KIPP’s and Cistro Rey’s of our country are successfully and purposefully pushing middle class values on impoverished students of color and as a result, enrolling them in 4 year and 2 year colleges and equipping them with the tools necessary for achievement in a highly competitive global economy. I admire these schools while simultaneously cringing at the thought of what it really takes to educate a disenfranchised youth from the community from which I teach.
My unachievable goal this week of 100 % student competency of specific learning outcomes seems miniscule compared to the goal of preparing 100 % of our students for a successful life. Does one lead to the other? Perhaps, but my suspicion is that only 30 % of middle class family parents can’t create and solve a proportion to find a whole population from a sample. Simultraneously, nearly 100 % of these families have access to quality jobs and quality lives (ignoring our current economic crisis).
Where am I going with all of this…I’m not really sure. I suppose our hopes just seem overwhelming at times and it helps to put them in writing. Our students deserve great futures…I just want to make sure we’re setting them up.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment