End of Grade Encouragement

I just experienced the new photo adding features of our journals, and they look and feel different than what I've been using (AOL pictures). I'm sure I'll get used to the new format, but I kind of liked the old format. I think I had more control with the former method (using AOL Pictures), and I was fast with it. Oh well, I guess it's time to learn some new tricks!

I don't like doing bulletin boards... I mean I would if I didn't have other more important (read: time sensitive) things that have to be done. I would enjoy the act of putting up a bulletin board if I had more time to work on it without sacrificing my time to do other things (it's always about time, or the running out it, or the lack of it).

There's just so much to do in the normal course of the school day, and putting together a bulletin board that shows off student work, or curriculum matters, or seasonal topics, that display classroom objectives, or even grade level objectives... well, it's something extra to do that I wish I didn't have to do because I have so much else to do. My bulletin board snuck up on me this year.

Alas, all the teachers are assigned a bulletin board during the year, so I am not alone. (I am not speaking for them... it is very likely that most teachers look forward to doing them. Maybe I'll feel differently next year.) I do know the students love to see their work in public places, so it is for a good cause. School is not about me... it is about them, as it should be. So I really am glad for the opportunity to allow my students an opportunity to show off their drawings.

While the Painted Lady Butterflies were growing and changing and right up until they flew away, we talked and read about bugs in my classroom (mostly the first and second graders were involved in this). I knew I had the bulletin board to complete for May/June, so I assigned them the task of creatinga bug. They could make one up or draw one they liked/disliked. They came up with some very colorful bugs. Several of the students didn't even mind writing something about bugs to add text to the display. I laminated the photos of real bugs, reinforced their pictures by gluing onto heavier paper, then stapled everything to the board.

I have to admit that I did enjoy doing it, despite that it meant I was at school until nearly 6:00 pm. last Friday. I printed the photos I've shot of all the bugs I (we) have seen this school year (with the exception of the polyphemus moth/caterpillar which came from 2005-06 school year). Actually, every bug on the bulletin board has already been shown in my journal at least once.

I rather like the result, although only the adults actually "get" the title. Clever? None of the students have commented on the title of the bulletin board. Actually they are the ones who inspired it because when I asked them what they thought about bugs, the answers varied. They either said bugs were good, or bad, or ugly. Oh, and creepy, but I couldn't connect that to the Clint Eastwood movie.

EOG tests begin next week. Here's my classroom as of this afternoon. I was at school until 5:00 doing that.

                                   

What you see here is a classroom covered up. Everything with text has to be covered. Anything that could help them with reading or math has to come down or be covered.

                             

Schools all across the nation are doing this so kids can take the EOG's next week. Those littlepieces of paper on the bulletin board have to come down too.... and there are some numbers along one wall that need to be covered. I'm going in Sunday to finish the job.

                                   

I always find this chore depressing because it makes the classroom look like we are finished with school. Some of the students actually think the school year is over when this happens. It isn't over until June 8 for us.

But the good news is we have spent the past nine months teaching them, and the end of grade and end of year tests will be over by next week. Hopefully, our kids won't have to retest. We did all we could do, and now it's up to them to demonstrate what they've learned by answering many, many multiple choice questions. Fortunately, we don't base all their learning on the results of a single end of grade test.

It's nerve-wracking, to say the least. For the kids and for us. We do everything we can to make it less stressful for them.

Parents can help out by encouraging their kids to get a good night's sleep, eat a good breakfast, and telling their sons and daughters to do their best. Also, parents can remind their young ones that they are smart, creative, and helpful, that they are proud of them, and that they know the kids will make the right choices as they go through life.

This is a tough time for kids. There's no need to make it any more stressful by threatening them or making negative, destructive comments to them, about them. What the kids need are encouraging words, words that build up, lift up. Words that inspire a kid to strive to do better because he is proud of what he has done, no matter that it isn't as good as another student, but that it is the best he can do this year. It has to come from inside the kid, where the fire is burning.

I can find encouraging words that lift any kid up. You can too. But you all know this already. I'm preaching to the choir. All kids have the same basic needs: to be loved, accepted, respected, appreciated, and recognized for the good they do; to have friends, to do something well, at least one thing better than someone else, to feel safe.

It's so simple, but when it's missing, the gap is wide and will be filled with other conditions that can distract and even prevent a kid from striving to do their best: hate, envy, paranoia, bitterness, helplessness, fear, apathy. These conditions all stem from a lack of self-love and self-respect.

If you know a student who has to take the end of grade test ( or end of course) this week, just remind them of the good they have accomplished (be specific), about the right choices they have made, how important they are, and how they will someday do good things, no, great things in this world. A child can't hear this enough.

They already have so many doubts and fears, and one of their greatest fears is that they are "stupid." I've heard them say it. And if they really believe that about themselves, they will not approach any task with confidence, for they already believe they will fail. The caring adults in their lives must step up to the plate and point out to the child his strengths. Every child has them, many of them. The kids needs to hear this so they can start believing they are intelligent and important in their circle of family and friends.

Certainly, all of this needs to be ongoing all through the year. And it isn't just the responsibility of the parent... I'm saying any adult in contact with children shares in the responsibility of influencing that child, of being their mentor, of being a life-teacher.

We can't say things like "that's not my kid" or "I don't care what happens to them." That kid you neglect, ignore, or shun because he isn't yours will someday be working alongside your kid, will be driving on the road with your kid, voting for presidents, living as your adult neighbor. They may be police officers and military soldiers someday, or nurses and doctors, or teachers, or environmentalists...or even potentially anti-social, hostile, dependent on the criminal-justice system. 

We better care what happens to them.

One final positive note: tomorrow morning I attend the graduation of my student teacher! She and her family will be looking out for me and saving me a seat. I am so looking forward to this. She is graduating from the very same school that I received my teaching degree. The only difference is that she is actually walking to receive her degree... I recieved my degree, but I didn't attend my own graduation ceremony. Long story. Maybe another day.