Words cannot describe everything I will take away from this experience. I have learned what students are capable of, what they can and cannot handle content wise, and more and more about myself. Every day has been a learning experience and I look forward to learning more every day. If this is what it means to be a teacher, I think I have definitely found my calling.
Right now in my classroom I have the joy of experiencing state assessments. This is an adventure in itself. The day can begin so wonderful and go to hell in a hand basket in an instant. The upside is I have seen how a good CT (or an awesome and experienced teacher) really handles a tough situation. We had computers crashing left and right, testing tickets disappear, and students who finished in 15 minutes. There was a lot of chaos and a few tears were shed but no one lost their cool. We have been prepping for this moment for the last 5-6 weeks and it has finally arrived just for me to wish it was all over. I have 1 final day to look forward to until the madness is over for the year. This is where my question comes in…. Where do we go from here?
Some teachers (not mine) have said to students, “Oh, we finished state assessments so we are done learning now let’s have fun”. Are we ever really done learning or teaching? I don’t think this is something we should be telling students, and I have started to become offended by hearing it from others. Now I understand students in certain grade levels hit a brick wall. Those of you in a high school setting may refer to this brick wall as senioritis, however in a middle school it is 8th graditis (not sure on the spelling of that sorry L). As we have begun to plan for the remainder of the year we can tell that the participation and excitement will begin to dwindle. We have completed most of what is required on the pacing guide and are looking at ways to prepare our students for their high school experience during the transition to common core standards. We realize there is going to be a larger emphasis on grammar and spelling so we would like to try to incorporate some review/re-teach of some of the basics. Future high school teachers I need your help!!!!! What is that you see needs work the most? I know from what I have encountered from 8th graders we definitely need to work on spelling because texting and predictive text has ruined my students ability to sound out words. Are you all seeing issues with grammar like not knowing about proper subject verb placement? What about problems with identifying nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc.? I would like to help prepare my students to be successful when they enter their high school language arts classroom but I really need to know what expectations are being set for them to come into. I would appreciate any advice or suggestions. As for now we are planning out the rest of the semester to be a crash course in high school prep by teaching lessons on etiquette, grammar, spelling, and still doing some literature. One text we are going to reference is The Essential 55 by Ron Clark. We hope by teaching the above our students will be better prepared to succeed in their high school journey and with your help I know we can get them where they need.
