As the school year winds down, I find it harder and harder to retain my students' attention. Maybe it's the countdown on my board (15 days for seniors, 28 for everyone else) that isn't helping? Either way, I feel more and more that during lunch the comments from my colleagues are generally along the lines of, "I can't wait for this school year to be over." or "The kids were crazy today; I couldn't get them to pay attention at all- at least the ones that decided to show up."
I can attest to these notions. For numbers sake, let's say I have 100 students total. That's a low average for myself and most of the teachers I know. Out of those 100, 20 are failing. This is a HUGE percentage considering my seniors have literally 4 classes before finals week (going on block schedule), and we only have 2-3 more grades that will be input before I submit their quarter grades. On top of that, I really have no hope of reaching 10 out of these 20 failing students. Why? Because I literally haven't seen them since 4th quarter started. How do these kids manage to miss half a semester of school & still be enrolled? It boggles my mind too.
Because of the general slacking, it's really hard to teach at this point in the year. Let's be real: you're tired, the kids are tired, and administrators somehow find 40 tons of paperwork that they're scrambling to get done in these last couple weeks along with testing and final grades. Didn't they know about this stuff at the beginning of the year? I know I didn't, but I generally like to have things done early to avoid scrambling. However, like it or not, there's informal evaluations to get in (ask me how well that's going), Marzano's domains to reflect on, as well as my PGP (which has remained untouched all year) to suddenly fix & submit along with my evidence of student progress.
These things combined are enough to drive any teacher crazy! So what's the point of my complaining? To share an act of kindness and good intention from my students that makes me want to continue to impact their lives.
While chaperoning prom this past weekend, I was able to relax and enjoy my students' company. They laughed, smiled, and danced the night away as I happily observed. Many of them came over to say hi & ask my fellow chaperoning teacher to dance. Overall it was a fun night. From this alone I probably would have been satisfied and felt refreshed from the general grind that is the every day classroom experience.
When prom court time came, we were all in for a surprise.
The students were lined up and named as the court was announced. It came down to the seniors, and two of my students, Ben & Anna, were announced king and queen. These selections came as no surprise and as they received their crowns the queen asked to say something.
When I was in high school, I don't recall our kings/queens ever speaking so I was puzzled. I thought they only gave speeches in movies? As Anna took the mic, she asked for everyone to be quiet so she could crown the girl who really deserved to win.
Anna called on a student, Hannah, who is mentally and physically disabled to come forward so she could receive the crown. Hannah has been a classmate of the 2012 Seniors for four years, and the students have really accepted and embraced her into their midst.
Hannah was wheeled forward, and everyone cheered as she received her crown, sash, and flowers from the girl chosen as prom queen.
At this point, all the surrounding teachers & I burst into tears at this act of kindness. Everyone knows and loves Anna. For her to make a public acknowledgement of a stereotypically forgotten student was so mature beyond a normal high school student's mentality that we all felt humbled. It reaffirmed, in my mind, that this group of kids had chosen the perfect "queen" to represent them.
If this girl had been chosen by her peers as their queen, then I feel that we are graduating an outstanding group of students this year that I am proud to teach.
Things like this are why I teach.
There ARE good kids out there.
They DO want to do the right thing.
They WILL make a difference in our world.
They ARE the future, and I'm not as scared as I thought I would be.
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