Past, Present, Future

I know I haven’t updated this blog since institute during the summer—but one of my resolutions was to write/reflect more—and today I am feeling particularly inspired.

I could give you a broad update about the last 6 months—but that would take too much time. Plus, it wouldn’t be relevant to where I am at right now.

So I just want to break down a couple of things that happened today that were inspiring to me as a teacher.

At my school, core subjects are pushed—HARD. Math and reading, math and reading, math and reading. Especially Algebra II, because last year we had zero kids who scored proficient or advanced. So elective classes tend to be my students get-a-way classes. Also, students cheer when they have a sub, because it usually means they aren’t going to have to work as hard.

So today—when I had four students who came to me during their elective classes/classes where they have a sub—in order to work on math during my planning period, I was so taken aback. One student needed to make-up a test because she had been absent (and she scored at a mastery level—YES!).

One of my girls was getting frustrated first period, because she was struggling with inverses. I could tell she was shutting down, as a lot of my kids do when they THINK things are getting too hard for them. As the class was dismissed I pulled her aside and told her not to get discouraged, I told her she was being hard on herself, which is a good thing—it means you have high expectations—but don’t let it bring you down. She said she would see me during my planning period for extra practice. There she was—waiting at the door when I came back from my car. We practiced inverse equations for 55 minutes straight—I think she had four pages full of practice problems, this girl was determined to get it right. I could not be more proud.

Another student, came to me in the middle of second quarter. At my school there is a lot of transiency. I probably get a new student every week. They usually come from another school in Memphis—but not every Algebra II classroom is on the same long-term plan, so I never know what they have learned prior to stepping foot in my classroom. As we were going through our lesson today, I heard her say out loud to her friend, I have no idea how we are doing this (students had to factor before simplifying the problem). As students were practicing later in the period, I told her to come see me during my planning or after school so I could remediate factorization with her. Her friend then said that she would teach her, so I thought I might not see her. Soon after 6^th period started, she came in my classroom, sat down and got to work. I showed her how to factor, and she kept on asking for more problems to practice. She caught on so quickly, and was determined to get it right.

One of my sophomore boys in Algebra II also came straight to me at 6^th period. Most of my students are Juniors, but I have a few sophomores in each class. Sometimes I really worry about my sophomores, because Algebra II is the highest math we have at my school. My students DESERVE to have the chance to take pre-calculus and calculus—but there just aren’t enough students who would qualify in order to fill quota and require the hiring of another teacher/time allotment in the day for a teacher they already have. ANYWAYS—he is super smart, super driven, and blew his ACT diagnostic out of the water, comparatively to the rest of the school. The school average is about a 14. He realized when taking the ACT diagnostic/practice tests that he didn’t remember some Geometry skills (sin/cos/tan—special right triangles). He knew that to bump his score up even higher, he was going to need those things. So, during a period where he could have been taking a mind break, he came and drilled himself on trigonometric ratios. Seeing a student who is already ahead, actively pushing himself even harder is one of the most inspiring things.

Needless to say, my kids are seriously GREAT. I love that I get the chance to see them self-motivated and truly starting to believe in themselves.

I’ve said it before, but I don’t think students realize just how much their actions impact a teacher’s day and overall life outlook.  

Together these three students truly demonstrate what it looks like to keep your pride while going back to build a foundation, stay determined throughout present struggles, and hold yourself to high expectations for the future.