How Can One Teacher be Both the Best and the Worst? A Letter to President Obama
As a teacher, have you ever felt as if you were the best teacher one class period and the worst the next period? Poverty is our challenge to meet excellence for all. I could relate to this letter by Shelley Barker from Snohomish, WA written to President Obama.
"I'll go toe-to-toe with them to demand they finish their work, and finish it well." - Shelley Barker
Are Your Kids Just Doing School?
The expectations we set for our students will most often be met. Think about that for a moment. Do you set high expectations for your students? The following is an excerpt from the article.
"When Hayden’s teachers have high expectations and raise the bar for him – he perseveres through the challenge and produces amazing work – advanced work. He has had many teachers do this for him. Unfortunately, he has also experienced instances of low expectations, and much to my horror as a parent and an educator, he has always met those too." -Shelley Burgess
Oh, this is a complicated one! This scenario evokes many emotions in a teacher, like myself, who has been trained for many years to go for the ones who are on the fence, or have fallen off, not the ones who made it over the fence. Our present educational society, within the confines of the NCLB ramifications, demands this approach. It takes a concentrated effort, as an educator, to withstand the temptations to carry out the aforementioned status quo approach without exceptions. My personal goal is to swing for what is over the fence, while taking those who have fallen, or are in danger or falling off the fence, with me.
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