"We are here for business, or we have no business here." This is a quote that I adapted from Molly Heit, but I like to exemplify it to my students and also use it as my own motivator. These students truly need a strong, positive, dedicated role model that believes in them no matter one. I often hear, "Ms. Smith, we ALWAYS have to do work in your class, you make us work the hardest each and every single day, I don't do anything until I get into your classroom." At first, this almost bothered me because I felt like they were complaining... and sometimes they still do. However, when I receive feedback that they don't learn in any other class but mine, or they love how I break down the material and now they finally understand science, makes all of those complaints and push backs worth it.
I feel like if you aren't a leader at H. W. Byers, you will crumble quickly. With being such a small school, there are so many roles to fill immediately when arriving on campus. As for academic success, I offer tutoring at least two times a week and I will basically stay any day a student wants to stay for remediation. For retesters from other classes, I let them sit in on my Biology lessons so that they can relearn the material and try grasping it for the next test, and retesters that I have, I let them either go to the other subject area teacher and sit in on their lesson or I receive state tested material so that they can sit in the back of my classroom and take practice tests to prepare themselves for the next test. I say this a lot, and I think it is unfortunate, but sometimes I think we as teachers care about how they do academically or graduating more than some of the students. But with that being said, that just has to make us the bigger role models and PUSH them to graduate and do well. You have made it this far, there is no turning back now.
I feel like if you aren't a leader at H. W. Byers, you will crumble quickly. With being such a small school, there are so many roles to fill immediately when arriving on campus. As for academic success, I offer tutoring at least two times a week and I will basically stay any day a student wants to stay for remediation. For retesters from other classes, I let them sit in on my Biology lessons so that they can relearn the material and try grasping it for the next test, and retesters that I have, I let them either go to the other subject area teacher and sit in on their lesson or I receive state tested material so that they can sit in the back of my classroom and take practice tests to prepare themselves for the next test. I say this a lot, and I think it is unfortunate, but sometimes I think we as teachers care about how they do academically or graduating more than some of the students. But with that being said, that just has to make us the bigger role models and PUSH them to graduate and do well. You have made it this far, there is no turning back now.
As for a leader outside the classroom, I try my best to be at almost every sporting event, and I sponsor a lot of them myself. I attended every girls and boys basketball game last year and I thoroughly enjoyed it. When Mrs. Malin had to go on maternity leave, I took over the volleyball team as head coach even though I know NOTHING about volleyball. Both our track coaches have a lot of other involvements and do not hold practices very seriously or a lot, so I often take the students out a couple times a week and practice with them, making my role as assistant coach. This year, I have even started a yoga and soccer club, and they have gone extremely well. I clear my room and sweep my floors and all my students bring mats and we do yoga every Wednesday for almost an hour. Ultimately, our students just need POSITIVE, DEDICATED leaders knowing that we care and that we will PUSH them to the best of their ability. Some students will do it naturally without any push, but it is those students that are resisting, trying to hold back that are the ones you need to work on the most.
Through my handwork and dedication, I have received a couple awards from my school and state to prove my leadership to my students.
I was presently surprised when I received teacher of the year last year. My principal forgot to mention it to me, so I found out while I was dissecting frogs with my Biology class after the state test. We were in the middle of cutting open the frogs with the scalpels when I got a call over the intercom that Mr. Thornton needed to see me immediately. Naturally, I assumed, O crap, I am in trouble. All of the students exclaimed, "OOOOO, MS. SMITH, what did you do?" I ran to his office to find out that I was already late for a lunch to celebrate my award and I needed to close down my lab immediately.
And once again I thought that I might have done something wrong. My vice principal knocked on my door around 3rd period and mentioned that the superintendent would like to speak to me during lunch, which is 6th period. The whole time I was thinking what could I have possibly done for Mr. Moore to want to speak to me. So during lunch I gathered all of my worried thoughts together and I headed to the vice principals office to see what was up. Mr. Moore was on the phone and he started talking about my previous years Biology scores. "Ms. Smith, we have great news for you, you received an award for your students achievement from last year," said Mr. Moore. I sat there trying to figure out, for what? We already knew about the scores for months and nothing came from it. The PREP's Award is awarded to students who get their students to score better than the statistical model predicted that they should. Therefore, based on our Title I status and our percentages of free and reduced lunches, we scored in the top 5% in the state for improvement.
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