Yesterday was the due date for any remaining final pieces from my students, and now I have to grade up a storm for as long as it takes. The grades are due next Friday.
I had a sub at school because I went with the eighth graders on their retreat. This is something we do every year - we take the eighth graders somewhere with a pool and they fool around and eat and have a great time. We also do a little orientation for high school and a spiritual challenge. It's always a chance for the teachers that go along to see the kids in a different setting and to appreciate how far they have come since we first started teaching them at the beginning of middle school.
Afterwards, my daughter had her piano recital and every single student played beautifully and glowed with pride in front of family and people who love them. I congratulated the piano teacher and said that it must be a wonderful experience as a teacher to see every student succeed. It got me thinking that I need to give my students more chances to shine in front of others with the work they do. It was a goal of mine this year to give the kids more chance to publish, and I'm afraid I haven't done a good job of it at all. So that's something to think more about for next year. I do give them a chance to share work with their classmates and many of them love to do it. I haven't done that as often this year, though, because it leads to so much silliness, and kids who get up and giggle so much that you can't hear a word they say, and then when you do hear, the writer may be the only one who finds it funny.
As I grade my students' work I generally get more and more depressed - it's very easy for me to focus on what they still can't do, and what I should have taught them better. But with the memory of the piano recital in my mind, I'm going to make a point of looking more for the beauty in their work, what they can do now that they couldn't at the beginning of the year, and how they are growing as writers and as people.
Here's today's Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon.
2 hours ago
3 comments:
As I sit with a stack of report cards waiting for brilliant comments and super grades, it is difficult not to focus on how much more I wish I'd been able to squeeze in their brains! I remind myself not to lament, but to pray that they lose very little over the summer!
I know you have accomplished far more with these kids than you think you have.
Hi Ruth,
I finally answered your meme!
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