Teacher Success Thread!

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

I have noticed that there is a fair amount of teachers on the board so I thought it might be a nice idea to have a thread dedicated to our successes during the year. Of course the timing is a bit odd, but the idea just popped into my head so I figure why not.

This is my first year teaching at this school. It is a private religious school that unfortunately does not make any accommodations for students with learning disabilities. The student I am about to talk about I would assume has a learning disability because he is way below grade level , however he has never been professionally diagnosed.

As a result, he is angry and frustrated because for all his life he has done poorly in school and has always been blamed for it. By the way this is seventh grade. I assigned a 5 paragraph essay on Egypt where the students had to pick 3 achievements of Egypt and explain their importance. I went around the room asking students which three they picked. When I get to him, he freaks out, starts to literally run out of the room and calls himself too stupid to do it. I walked calmly to the door and as hes running down the hall I hear myself yell like I have never yelled before and told him to get his butt back here. He listens and I basically pointed a finger in his face and said dont ever call yourself stupid again. You are not stupid, this is hard for everyone and everyone has to put in hard work to do well on the project including you. And I reiterated again that he was not stupid.

Well what do you know, he gets the paper done (with some help of course) and he does a decent job on it.

Then about two weeks after he handed it in which was yesterday he says randomly in the hall when no one is around. Thanks for saying I wasn't stupid.

[Barkeep49]

That's a great story. Thanks for sharing.

[Dr. Sak]

Thats great to hear! I'm fairly certain that sometime in the future your name will be brought up when that kid is talking about people who influenced his life.

[MJ4H]

I've done equal amounts of the following so far today:

1) teach
2) play smash bros
3) play mario kart

I count that as a success story.

[MikeVic]

I like that story too WhiteSox.

[ColtCrazy]

Great story. Sometimes all a kid needs is a little tough love to get them to understand that someone believes in them.

Okay, here's one of our highlights this year.

This is my 10th year of teaching, and my 2nd in 5th grade. For several years every fall, each class in our building creates a basket around a particular theme. A theme might be candles, dogs, camping, etc. These baskets are then auctioned off at a local event called We Care. The money raised goes to help buy winter clothes for kids in my area. Every year, about 30-50% of my class benefits from this. Well, this has been going on so long that I started noticing a few years ago that our baskets were selling for less and less at the auction so I decided we needed to do something different that had little overhead and good auction potential. We started writing sports teams asking for autographs, memorabilia, etc. It's been successful and before this year we were averaging about $150-175 for my class' basket.

Well, this year I decided to focus on the Colts only because everyone wants something Colts now from the Super Bowl champs. I made some homemade cards on the computer, and everyone in my class wrote 2 players each. We talked about what types of things would be in the letter, but the students had the final say on what was in the letter and how they would ask each player for an autograph. We wrote every player, coaches, and even owner Jim Irsay.

It wasn't long before the first autographs came in. Dallas Clark, Jeff Saturday, and Tony Dungy were some highlights. But then, we had the shocker. One of my students had wrote a wonderful letter to Jim Irsay. This student wasn't my best writer, but her letter had passion in it about what we were trying to do to help the kids. Irsay not only sent her a letter back....but also a check for $200 in the class' name as a donation to We Care. We were stunned. She got her picture taken with a giant version of the check, and even got to be on the radio. To make things even better, the basket, which had 15 autographs in it at the end, sold for $300 at the auction. $500 was by far the most an individual class had ever made. The class was very proud of this accomplishment and it really got them to understand what they can achieve using the written word.


Sorry the story ended up being a little long.

[Barkeep49]

That story (which is hardly too long) is why 5th graders rock. Great job Colt of facilitating that chance for the kids to legitimately accomplish something of importance.

[MrDNA]

Great idea for a thread, guys. Wish I were feeling clear headed enough to contribute! :)

[MikeVic]

Another awesome story!

[Lorena]

Both stories warmed my heart, thanks for sharing them :)

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

Bump. To combat the other thread :-)

Just a quick story...nothing too earth shattering...

A student I taught in writing this year was expelled in December. She came back recently to say hi to all her old teachers. Told me that thanks to me she is now one of the best writers in her class.

[DanGarion]

I teach adult learners how to do their job does that count as teaching?

[terpkristin]

This is a nice thread, especially when seeing the "teacher stupidity" thread earlier (yes, I know that's not the thread title but I'm too lazy to go look). I had some teachers in high school who I still consider to be some of the biggest influences on my life and what I'm doing now, over 10 years later. Can't say that about many of my college profs.

I really admire those that choose to teach.

/tk

[JediKooter]

Congrats rowech!

[Eaglesfan27]

This is a nice thread, especially when seeing the "teacher stupidity" thread earlier (yes, I know that's not the thread title but I'm too lazy to go look). I had some teachers in high school who I still consider to be some of the biggest influences on my life and what I'm doing now, over 10 years later. Can't say that about many of my college profs.

I really admire those that choose to teach.

/tk

Big plus 1. My English teacher in my freshman year of H.S. had a profound effect on my life and is an important part of all the future academic success I had. 3 of my high school teachers had the biggest effects on my life outside of my mother.

[sterlingice]

Big plus 1. My English teacher in my freshman year of H.S. had a profound effect on my life and is an important part of all the future academic success I had. 3 of my high school teachers had the biggest effects on my life outside of my mother.

Add a big +2, in particular, for high school teachers

SI

[Butter]

Yes, keep posting. Very nice thread, I love hearing teacher/student success stories.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

An email I received the other day from a parent:

I have degrees in history and art history and I just wanted to tell you my son really loves your class. I have never seen him study so hard on his own. He is making outlines on his computer for the class. Had to pull out all the old books out and show him Hammurabi's Stele. The kid was impressed when I told him that I saw it in Paris at the Lourve. Your class is making me look really hip to my son. Thanks.

I printed it out and put it on my fridge :D

I know there are other teachers on this board...lets hear some more stories!

[MrBug708]

I'm 7 days from having my prelim credential

[ColtCrazy]

My story is a work in progress so it'll be awhile before we see how it goes.

Teachers know that ever year you can count on having a class with maybe 5-10% troublemakers. This can ebb and flow and you'll have good classes and have bad ones. Then, you might end up with the class I have this time around.

I started the year with a solid 9 boys that have been consistently written up/earned detention during their last two years. Academically, they performed the lowest on the state tests that any class has performed in the last 13 years at my school.

My principal's idea was that instead of splitting this group of boys up is that I should get them all because (his quote) "you'll be good for them" and I get that. I'm the only male in the building and one of just 3 in the entire district that teach elementary.

Historically, I've been a father figure of sorts to girls in my class, obviously ones without an active father in their life. This year, I've definitely had to take on that role with some of the boys, many of which don't have either parent in the picture.

The boys outnumber the girls in my class 15 to 7. It's a challenging class, and the personalities aren't exactly easy to get along with.

Still, I'd have to quickly admit I accepted the challenge. Sure, there's enough evidence to support their label as a difficult group, but I think that's been this group's problem for the last two years at least. I think people have given up on them because they are difficult and not an easy class to like. It's almost a running joke about what I go through on a daily basis.

But I'm excited about how far they've come in the first half of the year. As a group, they've already gained a grade level in math based on school benchmark tests. Many of the lower students have gone up 1.5-2 grade levels in the first trimester. We're making progress. Yeah, I'm a hardass on them...I'm not your conventional, cuddly elementary teacher...but we are getting there.

I'll have more to tell after we get the results of state testing (which happens in March and again in April). 50% last year....I'd be disappointed if we didn't reach 75%, if not more.

This class may kill me, but I'll be damned if I'll give up on them. Too many other have, in and out of school.

[tarcone]

There needs to be more male elementary teachers. My daughter had one in 4th grade. She really improved academically that year. One of our MS male teachers had to go to 5th grade this year. I know about 6 girls in his class (friends of my daughter). The girls absolutely love him. As do the parents.

I teach 6th grade P.E.. I have a student that is in his 2nd year of 6th grade. Horrible home life. I have really connected with him. He is a real good kid in a bad situation. During our floor hockey unit, the boy and his Mom were walking down the hall as I was walking up it. They stopped me and said there was something in the office for me. I stopped by the office after breakfast duty. There was an aluminum handle, wood blade hockey stick. Wow. I have the boy in my 1st hour class. So I thanked him for the great gift. He then told me he found it in a dumpster and spent 2 1/2 hours cleaning it. Wow. Talk about a one of a kind gift. Awesome.


EDIT: Last year I caught this boy with a 4" blade knife. He said he needed it for protection. Safe schools act kicked in.