I will be begin by saying that I will be taking this blog post in a slightly different direction than suggested by our syllabus because I feel that everyone as future teachers should hear this.
I have recently begun observing an ELL classroom at a middle school. On my very first day the teacher (we will call him John) had a discussion with his students that really resonated with me. John asked his students to rate 1-5, one being the least important and 5 being the most important, how much grades matter to them. An overwhelming number held up a 5. He than said 'as a teacher I know I should care about grades, however my number would be about a 3. Its not the grade that counts in this classroom, its about trying, practice and learning.' In education there is so much emphasis placed on grades, standardized testing, and squeezing in all the information possible. However in our education programs we are taught to care about learning and students, not letter grades. John is the first teacher I seen have this conversation with students and to me it was a beautiful moment. In this one teacher I saw the actual teacher I want to be. (I know this is pretty sappy).
I have recently begun observing an ELL classroom at a middle school. On my very first day the teacher (we will call him John) had a discussion with his students that really resonated with me. John asked his students to rate 1-5, one being the least important and 5 being the most important, how much grades matter to them. An overwhelming number held up a 5. He than said 'as a teacher I know I should care about grades, however my number would be about a 3. Its not the grade that counts in this classroom, its about trying, practice and learning.' In education there is so much emphasis placed on grades, standardized testing, and squeezing in all the information possible. However in our education programs we are taught to care about learning and students, not letter grades. John is the first teacher I seen have this conversation with students and to me it was a beautiful moment. In this one teacher I saw the actual teacher I want to be. (I know this is pretty sappy).