Day 8 - Believing in Our Students

There are so many wonderful quotes about how students live up to our expectations. As teachers, we are adjured to believe in our students, give them the highest expectations, strive to integrate learning across the disciplines, differentiate lessons so that everyone will learn to their maximum potential.

And then you run smack into the wall of reality.

The question then becomes how do you make reality match the ideal? Is it even possible?

I hope I never become blase or pessimistic about that. I know far too many teachers who have become that way. I also know lots of amazing and wonderful teachers who are still positive, still enthusiastic, still changing the world one student at a time.

Today I spent time reviewing the IEPs (Individual Learning Plans) of students in the fifth and sixth grade classes. I'm still learning names - remembering names might be the bane of my teaching career. 120+ names is a LOT to learn, when you've never met any of them before! I think I have faces to go with all those names; we'll see tomorrow, as I check against the seating charts.

I'm impressed with how my CT has decided to accommodate the students with IEPs. I've learned some good stuff. I've realized I still have a long way to go. I am more determined than ever to include some special ed classes in my electives for my degree. It's important stuff, differentiated learning, and not so easy to know what to do.

Teachers, at least the good ones who care, are pretty amazing people.

Many instructional arrangements seem "contrived," but there is nothing wrong with that. It is the teacher's function to contrive conditions under which students learn. It has always been the task of formal education to set up behavior which would prove useful or enjoyable later in a student's life.
~ B.F. Skinner