A Day in the Life of a First-Year Teacher

Monday, April 23, 2012

Good teachers: willing to do anything for success

As I have previously blogged about, I live in a townhouse with four roommates in Queens. One of my roommates, a self-declared "gossip diva" gets weekly subscriptions to People magazine. She usually leaves the magazines on the coffee table in the living room for the rest of us to read in our free time. Yesterday night, I went through the magazine and found a new segment/feature: The People Magazine Teacher of the Year award. The feature article underneath the announcement described the teaching adventures of an eighth-year science teacher in Washington state. He teaches students primarily of Native American descent. The article centered around the teacher's willingness to do anything for his students to be successful. According to his students, he goes to them if he sees that they are struggling. He sometimes visits homes or calls students to make sure they understood the lesson.  When standardized tests come around, he bets anything that's "not dangerous" to his students in return for a 75% passing rate... things I would probably not do - like dying his hair rainbow colors, shaving his hair off and kissing a pig.

However, reading that article really made me think about myself as a teacher. Good teachers really do sacrifice if students achieve at high rates. I really admire the fact that they are willing to do things that may make them uncomfortable or "looked at" if it helps motivate student success. That's what true dedicated, passionate and selfless teachers do.

I want to come up with something I can do for my students if my students reach our goal of an 80% passing rate (3 or a 4) on the NYS. Some of them have never earned a "3" before on the NYS math test. And for most of these students, I am very confident that they will be able to attain that score this year. They have the content down, but now it's time for the final touch.

I do believe that excellent educators are willing to do anything for their students. And so am I. Maybe someday I can be one of the People Magazine Teachers of the Year!

No comments:

Post a Comment