This is a great time to sit and reflect on the insanity that is the end of the school year. I think this year has been one of the most stressful and difficult for myself and my colleagues at Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School.
There are many reasons why, but one is that we have a very difficult group of students. The level of respect and engagement is really terrifyingly low. I am speaking of about 20% of the class. The other 80% are wonderful and very aware and distressed that they are in such a difficult class. There are 93 students in the 8th grade class. Of that 93, 15 students cannot be a part of the promotion ceremony because of dismal grades all year. We have never had that many. We have had many discipline problems this year (more than ever) and very little support in the office because of understaffing.
We teachers are doing a great deal of self examination to figure out why we have failed these students so badly. We are a group of really talented teachers, but, we may be encountering a phenomenon that is going to be the new norm. Another very distressing fact is that of the 15 who are not graduating, 10 are Latino boys. What is going on?
Another factor, that has made this year difficult, is that we have a new superintendent and a new principal. It has been a year of transitions and many inconsistencies in policies and attitudes.
This all said, my driving question remains the same...
How can I, as an 8th grade teacher, solve the disengagement of so many of my students and find a way to attain successful learning by all members of my student community?
I remain hopeful, even though it seems pretty dismal right now. I am interested to see if my Capstone Project, which is going to be to create a "Challenge Based Project" for my fall class, will help to improve the engagement and authenticity of our students' learning. These students are different and we know this. We have to approach their education differently. I am also not sure of the level of interest or commitment of our administration to change in delivery of curriculum.
We teachers at RLS are constantly trying to become better. I am very fortunate to work with such dedicated educators. As I am writing this, I am thinking that we should have a day long retreat this summer to discuss and brainstorm what we need to do to be successful with all our students. This is a time for drastic innovation and we have got to be on board.
There are many reasons why, but one is that we have a very difficult group of students. The level of respect and engagement is really terrifyingly low. I am speaking of about 20% of the class. The other 80% are wonderful and very aware and distressed that they are in such a difficult class. There are 93 students in the 8th grade class. Of that 93, 15 students cannot be a part of the promotion ceremony because of dismal grades all year. We have never had that many. We have had many discipline problems this year (more than ever) and very little support in the office because of understaffing.
We teachers are doing a great deal of self examination to figure out why we have failed these students so badly. We are a group of really talented teachers, but, we may be encountering a phenomenon that is going to be the new norm. Another very distressing fact is that of the 15 who are not graduating, 10 are Latino boys. What is going on?
Another factor, that has made this year difficult, is that we have a new superintendent and a new principal. It has been a year of transitions and many inconsistencies in policies and attitudes.
This all said, my driving question remains the same...
How can I, as an 8th grade teacher, solve the disengagement of so many of my students and find a way to attain successful learning by all members of my student community?
I remain hopeful, even though it seems pretty dismal right now. I am interested to see if my Capstone Project, which is going to be to create a "Challenge Based Project" for my fall class, will help to improve the engagement and authenticity of our students' learning. These students are different and we know this. We have to approach their education differently. I am also not sure of the level of interest or commitment of our administration to change in delivery of curriculum.
We teachers at RLS are constantly trying to become better. I am very fortunate to work with such dedicated educators. As I am writing this, I am thinking that we should have a day long retreat this summer to discuss and brainstorm what we need to do to be successful with all our students. This is a time for drastic innovation and we have got to be on board.