Saying Goodbye to My Stars
The last day of summer school - it came much too quickly! As I sat in the dining hall eating my breakfast, I thought about how much I've learned and how much I still need to improve on. These last five weeks have been a whirlwind of workshops, lesson plans, and feedback. I can still quickly determine what was the very best part - my students.
When I picked them up in the cafeteria today, I could tell it was going to be a day like none other this summer. They were excited that school was about to be over. Several handed me thank you notes and all of them gave me hugs. I think I've been hugged more this week than I have been in years! We came up to the classroom and I turned my third graders over to my co-teachers. Two of us will still have to be in class while the other two attempted to teach a fairly distracted group of nine and ten year-olds. Mr. McKean took a big risk and dressed up like Captain Underpants (tighty-whities over his kakhis and a red cape around his neck) for his Shared Reading period. That guy will do anything for his students! Needless to say, the loved it.
I was teaching math as the last academic period of the day and we worked on bar graphs, tally charts, and pictographs for a bit. I thought I would have the students help me make a graph of their ages. I didn't anticipate that they would start yelling at each other when they didn't think another student was standing up for the appropriate age. Next time I'll go with favorite animal - they can't dispute someone else's pet choice. Still, they mastered the objective for the day and then it was on to a short game of Jeopardy! review. During the game, all the teaching advisors came in and announced that Room 215 had won the "early bird" contest! The kids had thought they had lost because a room upstairs (with only 9 student, by the way) had been on-time one day more than we had. I had found out about an hour earlier that they had chosen a winner from each floor. My students were so happy and surprised to win this contest. You should have seen their smiles.
The culminating event of summer was our awards ceremony. Each four of the teachers had made awards for the students they had worked with in small groups this summer. Christine receive the "Striving for Excellence in Math Award" and Angel was given the "Division Master Award." The students loved every minute of it. We were allowed to give me some of the books we had used for the summer and each child took home two math workbooks and a guided reading text. We also passed out small candy bags and gave each child a letter from all four teachers. We included my address in New York so the students could write to any of us if they so desire. I will be the one to forward mail on to the other teachers if I receive it.
Honestly, things got a little chaotic about five minutes before the end of the day. One of our most struggling students, Jeffrey, asked if he could say something in front of the whole class. He weakly announced, "I like you all teachers so much." and then put his head down and started bawling. He was so sad that he was going to have to leave us. As three of us got the rest of the class ready to leave, Ms. Schroder went and talked to the students about how wonderful he is. All of our students then picked up their homework folder next. The school had passed out promotion/retention letters at the end of the day and told us to send them home to the parents with the students (a ridiculous policy, if you ask me). A few students realized these letters were in the folder and started looking at them. We heard some "I passed, I passed" exclamations and then all the sudden loud weeping. It was Jeffrey. He had opened his letter and seen FAILED at the top. He came up to me with tears streaming down his face stuttering, "I don't want to be in third grade anymore, I failed, I failed." I had no idea about what was going on. We had considered retaining Jeffrey because he made little improvement his summer and he was still on a primer level in math and reading, but we had discussed the ill-effects of student retention and decided to promote all of our students and recommend some to be considered for special education.
As I rubbed Jeffrey's back, I said, "You didn't fail, it's all right," without even really knowing what I was saying. I then asked Mr. McKean to come talk to him (they had worked together in small group all summer). We eventually figured out that the letter said "failed" at the top and "promoted" at the bottom to indicate that Jeffrey had not improved, but would still be allowed to move to fourth grade. He eventually calmed down and collected his things. He gave us all a big hug and, somehow, headed out of the school building with a weak smile on his face.
In the meanwhile, Angel, Christine, Destiny, Francisco, Luis, and others came right up to me and gave the biggest, firmest hugs in the world. Each and every one of them is really a star in my eyes and I will remember them for so long. Angel told me he was moving to New York and he would come and see me there. Tionna wrote that I was her favorite teacher and Shadiah that "Ms. Petersen hopes you do good" on their writing test about summer school. Crystal wrote me a thank you note on her own Power Puff Girl stationary and all of them smiled as they walked out of Munoz-Marin, much more confident in their abilities and the possibilities of success.
When I picked them up in the cafeteria today, I could tell it was going to be a day like none other this summer. They were excited that school was about to be over. Several handed me thank you notes and all of them gave me hugs. I think I've been hugged more this week than I have been in years! We came up to the classroom and I turned my third graders over to my co-teachers. Two of us will still have to be in class while the other two attempted to teach a fairly distracted group of nine and ten year-olds. Mr. McKean took a big risk and dressed up like Captain Underpants (tighty-whities over his kakhis and a red cape around his neck) for his Shared Reading period. That guy will do anything for his students! Needless to say, the loved it.
I was teaching math as the last academic period of the day and we worked on bar graphs, tally charts, and pictographs for a bit. I thought I would have the students help me make a graph of their ages. I didn't anticipate that they would start yelling at each other when they didn't think another student was standing up for the appropriate age. Next time I'll go with favorite animal - they can't dispute someone else's pet choice. Still, they mastered the objective for the day and then it was on to a short game of Jeopardy! review. During the game, all the teaching advisors came in and announced that Room 215 had won the "early bird" contest! The kids had thought they had lost because a room upstairs (with only 9 student, by the way) had been on-time one day more than we had. I had found out about an hour earlier that they had chosen a winner from each floor. My students were so happy and surprised to win this contest. You should have seen their smiles.
The culminating event of summer was our awards ceremony. Each four of the teachers had made awards for the students they had worked with in small groups this summer. Christine receive the "Striving for Excellence in Math Award" and Angel was given the "Division Master Award." The students loved every minute of it. We were allowed to give me some of the books we had used for the summer and each child took home two math workbooks and a guided reading text. We also passed out small candy bags and gave each child a letter from all four teachers. We included my address in New York so the students could write to any of us if they so desire. I will be the one to forward mail on to the other teachers if I receive it.
Honestly, things got a little chaotic about five minutes before the end of the day. One of our most struggling students, Jeffrey, asked if he could say something in front of the whole class. He weakly announced, "I like you all teachers so much." and then put his head down and started bawling. He was so sad that he was going to have to leave us. As three of us got the rest of the class ready to leave, Ms. Schroder went and talked to the students about how wonderful he is. All of our students then picked up their homework folder next. The school had passed out promotion/retention letters at the end of the day and told us to send them home to the parents with the students (a ridiculous policy, if you ask me). A few students realized these letters were in the folder and started looking at them. We heard some "I passed, I passed" exclamations and then all the sudden loud weeping. It was Jeffrey. He had opened his letter and seen FAILED at the top. He came up to me with tears streaming down his face stuttering, "I don't want to be in third grade anymore, I failed, I failed." I had no idea about what was going on. We had considered retaining Jeffrey because he made little improvement his summer and he was still on a primer level in math and reading, but we had discussed the ill-effects of student retention and decided to promote all of our students and recommend some to be considered for special education.
As I rubbed Jeffrey's back, I said, "You didn't fail, it's all right," without even really knowing what I was saying. I then asked Mr. McKean to come talk to him (they had worked together in small group all summer). We eventually figured out that the letter said "failed" at the top and "promoted" at the bottom to indicate that Jeffrey had not improved, but would still be allowed to move to fourth grade. He eventually calmed down and collected his things. He gave us all a big hug and, somehow, headed out of the school building with a weak smile on his face.
In the meanwhile, Angel, Christine, Destiny, Francisco, Luis, and others came right up to me and gave the biggest, firmest hugs in the world. Each and every one of them is really a star in my eyes and I will remember them for so long. Angel told me he was moving to New York and he would come and see me there. Tionna wrote that I was her favorite teacher and Shadiah that "Ms. Petersen hopes you do good" on their writing test about summer school. Crystal wrote me a thank you note on her own Power Puff Girl stationary and all of them smiled as they walked out of Munoz-Marin, much more confident in their abilities and the possibilities of success.
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