I've been teaching for seven years. You'll never catch me saying that I'm an expert in my profession, by any means. I'm doing the very best I can to learn all the time and bring the best instruction to my students. I attended college and graduate school, in addition to countless hours spent in professional development courses and seminars.
This past week, my students took the ELA State Assessment, and I felt defeated. As any good teacher would, I prepared my students to the very best of my ability from September to April. We read authentic fiction, nonfiction and poetry. My students learned how to close read a challenging text, and understood how to provide evidence for their answers. I did everything I could to make my students engaged in their learning, from having them play games learning how to answer multiple choice questions, to having them pretend their fingers were like ET to follow along as we read a passage aloud...to even speaking in accents and funny voices to keep them involved in my lessons. If I could have stood on my head to have them pay closer attention, I would have.
We spent time in class, discussing their worries and fears about "THE TEST" weeks prior to the test, and I calmed their nerves. I told them that all I wanted them to do was their very best. I told them not to worry about me losing my job, because I do my job each day. My job should not be weight on the shoulders of 8 and 9 year olds. That's just unfair. I also told them that they would be promoted to fourth grade. If they haven't heard of being retained yet, they won't be. I wanted the students to be as relaxed as possible.
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