Preparations...

This week marks the week before the big SAGE writing test. Everything in my student teaching has led to this test. All of these preparations have got me thinking about how I will eventually decide to prepare my students for the state tests.

To preface, I am a believer in assessment tests. Students should be accountable for their learning and earn the right to move on to the next grade. I am not a believer in the way the system is set up now. The test means something to the teachers, it could effect their job and even their salary, but it does not mean anything to students. I cannot count how many times I have heard students say that this test "doesn't even matter." If they have this attitude going into it, then how can we insure that they are doing their best? How can you put so much pressure on the teachers when its the students' scores that really matter? I have experienced students not wanting to do their work in class. They sit there. They stare at the wall. They ignore you. They will ignore the test. Unless, the test actually matters to them! The only solution that I can offer is that students need to pass, with proficiency, their end of the year assessments in order to move on to the next grade level. Then students would really need to pay attention all year long and for the test. Anyway. That is sort of a tangent.

Along the lines of students not wanting to do their work, I have been struggling to keep the hope of being an impactful teacher for all my students. When I see their bored faces or their heads down one their desks and they are sleeping, I get discouraged. After I told this concern to my cooperating teacher, she said, "you can't give up."

Well, if that wasn't just a life lesson slapping me in the face. This is how I see the teaching profession. You give all you have and then give a little more. And once that is rejected, you try again. Maybe it will hit the students now, maybe in twenty years, maybe never. The point is that you are the one trying to help them succeed. No matter what, they can see that someone is rooting for them.

Taking it one step further into my student teaching, I am not great at it right now. I am not as organized as I should. I do not have the more effective lessons. Heck, I can't even say a sentence without mumbling or stumbling in some way. But. I can't give up. I need to try my hardest so that I can give my students the best I can possibly produce.

This week has reconfirmed that every students has a chance at succeeding at something. I just need to help them find it and not give up looking just because it gets hard.