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• Elona Hartjes, MEd (Candidate), Ontario Certified Teacher

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I can’t believe it’s been three years since I started writing my Teachers At Risk blog.  Where has the time gone?

Strangely, at least to me, I don’t seem to be as excited about this birthday as I was the last one. I’m not sure why.  Maybe it’s because writing posts for Teachers At Risk has become part of my life now, one of the things I just do.  I wonder how other bloggers feel about blogging when they’ve  reached the three year  mark?

I am, however, still  very excited about the learning community that continues to build around Teachers At Risk.  I’ve met some great people through my blog,  and there  have been some thought provoking discussions about what has been written.  I don’t expect everyone to agree with me.  On the contrary,  I welcome other points of view because they help clarify my own thinking,  even change my thinking about something.  After all, I hardly know it all even though I’ve been happily teaching for what seems like forever.

Being nominated for an Edublog Award in the Best Individual Blog for 2008 category was pretty exciting, too.  I felt honoured when  Mathew nominated me- he isn’t even a relative.   Thanks again Mathew.

Another thing that I’m excited/surprised about is that  Teachers At Risk has had over 100 000 hits this year alone. I don’t know how that compares to other blogs, and to be honest I’m not too concerned about it.  I’m too surprised.  I can still remember how excited I was when I first started my blog three years ago to learn that I had 80 hits.  Imagine, I thought, 80 people have found their way to my blog. It seemed magical at the time. To be honest,  it still does.

I’m very grateful for all the support I continue to get from family and friends, old and new. Thank you all so very, very much.

What will the next year bring? I invite you to share the journey with me and find out, sharing resources and  insights about teaching and learning from one another for the benefit of our students. Because after all,  it’s all about our students.

My more reluctant/struggling students will often start projects or assignments with the best of intentions. But, we all know where best intentions lead if sustained effort is absent.

Sustaining effort is a challenge for many of my students. They start strong, and then just peter out for whatever reason (that’s a whole other topic) and don’t complete and/or submit their work. I want my students to get credit for what they’ve done, even if they haven’t completed the assignment or haven’t handed it in.

I know. I know. Some of you may be raising an eyebrow or two, but I’m working with “at-risk” kids who are used to failure. I want them to get used to success. So, I use teacher observation on a daily basis to evaluate the assignment as they work through it.

Yes, I can extend deadlines and do, but sometimes deadlines are absolute and can’t be extended like at the end of the semester.  Often, I’m just left with promises, empty promises it turns out. Even though students have completed part of the assignment, they decide for whatever reason they’ll take a zero and not bother anymore.

Some of my students are quite used to getting zeros. They’ve gotten them many times in their school career. It’s really no big deal they’ll tell me. It’s a big deal to me though. I want my students to get credit for what they’ve done, and teacher daily observation notes while students are working on the assignments let  me do that.

I mostly do this for the final evaluation. This evaluation is worth 30% of the final mark and can mean the difference between earning the credit or not earning the credit. This past semester, I had two students in my grade 12 class who didn’t submit the final evaluation before the absolute deadline. They had marks in the 80′s going into the final, but just didn’t  submit the assignment in time. Fortunately, I had my observation notes and used those to evaluate their work. They didn’t get a high mark because they didn’t complete the assignment, but they did get a mark for what they had done.

Now, the question you might pose is: am I enabling my students to get away with poor work habits, or am I just making assessment accommodations so that my students can demonstrate their learning?

I figure that by using teacher observation to evaluate my students’ work in this wa, I’m just making assessment accommodations. My observations enable students to demonstrate their  learning, which is just what accommodations are supposed to do. Any ideas?

Photo by  Oh mon heros!

“Learning his letters made the boy shine, and the old man likes to sit in that clean, honest light.”

When I read those words in Karen Connelly’s novel The Lizard Cage, I had an epiphany. That’s it. I’m like that old man. I like teaching because I like to sit in that clean, honest light that comes from my students when they learn something they’ve been struggling with.

Most of my students aren’t as motivated as the old man’s student in the novel, but that makes it all the better as far as I’m concerned. My students’ reluctance or struggle to learn something challenges me to be creative in finding ways to help them learn and shine. Yes, they do shine. You just have to look at their beaming faces when they finally get “it” to see that. Oh, that shine is so addictive.

Photo: marko_k

Some times things aren’t what they seem. Mae West recognized this when she asked,
“Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me”?

I’ve been encouraging my students to use the 6 x 6 rule when creating their PowerPoint presentations- a maximum of six bullets of six words per slide. I keep telling them that they’re not to write paragraphs on the slides. That’s not what PowerPoint presentations are about. PowerPoint presentations aren’t books. Boy was I wrong. Who knew.

Take a look at this cool site. You can log in as a guest and read books, poems, etc in PowerPoint format. That’s right- books in PowerPoint format. Now, that’s thinking outside the box.

The idea behind this is that you can read for pleasure at work and not get caught because what you’re reading looks like a PowerPoint presentation. I’m not encouraging that, but it’s interesting to see a book or poem in that format. Maybe, I can work this idea into a lesson come September.

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• Dislcaimer

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