Not gonna lie friends...yesterday was an AWESOME day.
Which is only slightly ironic, as exactly a week before that (last Wednesday, to be precise) I was hysterically crying not only to my sister over the phone, but also to my CMA (corps member adviser-- my direct supervisor and main support for the summer as I develop as a teacher) in our weekly meeting. In a nutshell, last Wednesday sucked. To avoid dwelling on unnecessary details, I was attempting to teach time to my second graders. Let me tell you, time is hard to teach in 45 minutes. Really hard. And things get really complicated when your second graders can't tell the difference between the hour and the minute hand. I couldn't even give my assessment to my kids on Wednesday. We didn't get through enough material and for the first time since coming to Atlanta, I really felt like I sucked at my job. It was not a good day.
But, thanks to a few wonderful people and lotsa support from some fellow corp members, I came out of Wednesday knowing that it could be better. And slowly, it did. I was still teaching hard concepts, but it was getting better.
And then, yesterday came.
Let me set the stage: my co-teacher and I decided kind of last minute (as in Monday) to co-teach the entire hour and a half instead of each teaching separate 45 minute segments. My objective for Wednesday was to teach subtraction word problems, and her's was to teach addition word problems. Instead of trying to break up both of these, we decided that it was better to group them together and focus on the difference in key words of word problems (ie "all together" and "in all" tell us that we need to add, while words like "how many more" and "how many left" tell us that we need to subtract).
Lemme tell you I have never in my LIFE seen kids so stinkin' excited about learning some key words and problem solving strategy skills. For reals. EVERY single one of my kids was paying attention, EXCITED to answer questions, and completely engaged throughout the ENTIRE lesson!
Some of you may have seen the Facebook status or tweet from me declaring that I had "crossed the threshold" into passionate/joyful with my kids. The meaning from these statements comes from the Teaching As Leadership Impact Model. Teaching as leadership is TFA's theory as to how corps members can become transformational leaders and really make lasting and meaningful change in their classrooms. In a nutshell, it says that teacher mindsets and actions have a direct impact on student achievement. My effectiveness as a teacher is judged on how my students are acting in my class, which start at "unengaged and disinterested." By the time everyone leaves institute, your kids should be "interested and hard working."
But I swear, in a few moments throughout the lesson, my kids were beyond interested and hard working and truly became passionate and joyful learners! This was by far the best antidote I could have had for fixing a crappy week. And it's been motivating me over the last 24 hours to step up my lesson plans and bring my kids over to that passionate, joyful learning. Today, 100% of my kids mastered the objective that I was teaching. There is no better reward than that!
I feel like I've just tried crack for the first time, except that my drug of choice is student achievement and not controlled substances (that may or may not have been the most ridiculous thing I have ever said or written). But in all honesty, it's true. Institute is hard. Teaching is hard. But I've just had my first glimpse at what is possible with these kids. More importantly, I feel like I'm doing what I was made and created to do. There is nothing better than that!
Logistical updates: 9 DAYS LEFT PEOPLE. nine.days.left. Part of me is ready to run back to Ohio and leave everything about Georgia Tech behind, but another part is completely terrified knowing that with only 5 weeks of training I will be responsible for an entire classroom for an entire year! I leave here on the 9th and will be home probably until the 14th or 15th when I officially move to Tennessee, and Ohio will become "the place I grew up in" and no longer my home state (I haven't really processed all of that in my brain yet, which may or may not lead to some future late night phone calls from me. Consider this your warning!) :) I will dearly miss some of the friends I have made from the Greater New Orleans corps and the Atlanta Corps, but I am very much looking forward to getting back to Memphis and working with the TFA Memphis office for the next two years.
I received my official calendar from the principal of my new school! School starts August 22 (why yes, that IS the day after my birthday, how nice of you to remember!) and we get out on June 15th. That's 183 instructional days for students, 23 vacation days, and 5 days of PD with no kiddies. Not quite sure what to think about it yet. Most Memphis City Schools start August 8 and get out somewhere at the end of May. I don't think I will like being in school an extra 2 weeks while all of my friends are having fun without me!
I am going home this weekend for my Young Life leader's wedding which I am B.E.Y.O.N.D. excited for! Seeing her get married, celebrating with all of my friends AND getting a weekend away from institute are all things that make my heart happy!
Alright, I think that is enough updates and inspiration for you all. Thanks for all of you who tell me that you read this-- it really does make my day! Here's to 9 more days of closing the achievement gap for the time being and eating pre-made cafeteria food!
Love to all!
No comments:
Post a Comment