Celebration of Knowledge

Day 87:

The students took a test today; it covered more material than any other test to date.

I'm not too enthusiastic with their results.

Whenever this happens, which at times seems to be more than it ought, I tend to question my methods. Am I not doing enough? Did I devise too extensive an exam? Are they learning? Am I really teaching? Did I pick the wrong profession?

These questions are untimely considering that during today's faculty meeting a women from the district office came in to 'share' with us. I call this connection untimely because it was rather clear why she was no longer in the classroom. Her message attempted to provide a pedagogy that would help teachers, aka the Portola staff, how to effectively teach content standards with the help of some specific instructional strategies. Her twenty minutes were nothing more than an exercise in beating the dead horse.

Maybe I am in the wrong field.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing a message with the class that has nothing to do with the content of my class. It's titled, "By the Numbers: The Point of Middle School.

I do these 'lectures' from time to time. There is no test on this stuff; they're designed to inspire and motivate. I don't really know of these little lessons really get through, but I know it's a large part of why I teach.

Such days help me face questions like this, "What am I missing that they miss so many on the exam?"

Today I think I learned that I need to do better to help my students prepare.
Today I think I learned that in all reality I care far more for the learning itself than I do for the testing of it.
Today I learned that I hope my students will learn more tomorrow than they have all year long....I hope the same is true for me.

What are you hoping to learn?