Dec

30

It’s Not All Up To Me

Filed Under "At-risk" students, The Way I See It | Leave a Comment

arrowinheadI’ve been thinking about this for some time now, and I have come to the realization that it’s not all up to me. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize this. Now, it seems perfectly irrational for me to even have entertained the notion that it was all my responsibility for whether students in my credit recovery classes did well or not.
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If you’ve been following my blog, you might know that this semester I teach high school students who have been identified as “at-risk “. These at-risk students are students who are in grades nine and ten and are failing two or more compulsory courses. If these students had passed all their courses, they would have earned sixteen credits ( eight each year) by the end of grade ten. The thinking is that these at risk students are so far behind their peers that they’ll just give up on school and quit as soon as they can- which up to just recently was when they turned sixteen, but now is when they turn eighteen.
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I don’t know why I took all the ownership for these kids recovering their credits. I think part of it was that I am a Student Success Teacher, not a math teacher, an English teacher, a science teacher but a student success teacher. A student success teacher’s job is to have students succeed. If my students don’t succeed, then I don’t succeed- or so I used to think.
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I’d forgotten some things, though. Why? I’m not sure. First, I’d forgotten the danger of getting too attached to something. In this case, getting too attached to being successful helping my students be successful. I wanted my students to succeed. I wanted to succeed at being a student success teacher. I wanted to be able to make help these kids succeed. Do I remember how to I spell EGO? Yes, now I remember how to spell ego. Secondly, I’d forgotten the wisdom in the old adage that “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. I realize that there’s only so much I can do, or more importantly take ownership for. I can provide an environment conducive to learning with the support of parents, administrators, guidance counsellors and other teachers, but I can’t drink the water for my students. They have to do that themselves.

Dec

28

Training Horses and Teaching Students.

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Special Education, The Way I See It | 2 Comments

….if you are rash and aggressive with your horse on a regular basis, this reflects a lack of knowledge. There are many different ways to communicate something to your horse, and you have to be flexible. If you try to teach your horse something, and he doesn’t understand right away or doesn’t respond, you don’t become aggressive. You have to think, “Can I explain this a different way? Do I need to break it down? What in the communication isn’t working? He stressed that trainers who frequently beat their horses and are abusive to them are never going to produce a good end product.

These words just jumped off the page as I read them. “Oh my goodness”, I said aloud. “If I substitute the word “student” for the word “horse” that’s my philosophy about teaching! It’s the same philosophy as “Don’t Blame The Lettuce”. It’s the same message. Don’t blame. Be compassionate. Be flexible. Be open. Suddenly scaffolding and differentiated instruction came to mind. Scaffolding and differentiated instruction during the holidays away from the classroom? I guess you can take this teacher out of the classroom, but not the classroom out of this teacher. :)

Dec

26

A Helpful Resource For Starting A Blog In The Classroom

Filed Under Computers In The Classroom | 1 Comment

I’ve been enjoying the break from work and have been just taking it easy. No bells. :) No supervisions. :) No rushing. :) I hope you have been able to take a break and relax with family and friends.
Earlier here I talked about starting a blog with my Learning Strategy Class in February. I’ve gotten some wonderful information from www.teachersteachingteachers.org about classroom blogs. Sue, curricular head for school-online, gave me a heads up on this particular teachers blog. Thanks Sue. I thought I’d pass it along and ask if anyone else has any other information about blogging in the classroom, I would appreciate hearing about it. I have all kinds of visions of sugar plums classroom blogs dancing in my head.

Dec

23

It’s finally finished.

Filed Under The way I see it | Leave a Comment

Access the graphic organizer for a supported opinion essay here. I finally finished it.

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    These are my personal views and not those of my employer.
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