Success

The biggest successes throughout the year were individual students whose progress was the result of hard work on their part coupled with my guidance.  I can think of three students in particular who were struggling in math from the beginning of the year, but who made it known to me that they were going to give their best effort to try to improve.  I cannot stress enough how much of a difference it made to stay after school and tutor students one-on-one.  Some students are so far behind that trying to catch up in the classroom with lots of other students (and therefore lots of other distractions!) was not going to happen.  With a 45-minute commute home, the absolute last thing that I wanted to do at the end of the day was stay for more school.  Even if I stayed over just thirty minutes after the normal time I left from school, I would be getting home around 5, leaving me four hours to go to the gym, cook and eat dinner, blog, and plan for the next day.  However, every time that I did stay after school, I was immediately reminded why it’s always worth it to stay.  It’s so rare that a student is willing to stay after school, so when they are putting the time in, I try to remind myself that it’s my responsibility to do the same.  It’s in those short, individual interactions that one gets to experience the magical teacher moment of witnessing a student move from point a to point b.  “I don’t get this,” begins to become, “Oh, this is so easy!”.  I don’t think there’s an experience more rewarding in this job.  

The other thing that I would consider a “success” in my school experience, which actually didn’t expect to care about, is the growth in the students’ standardized test scores.  My students outperformed every other math class in the school, and I was very proud of myself for this achievement, especially since some of the other math teachers have been teaching for years, and this is my first try!  I must be doing something right if my students can do comparatively better on their tests.  After a year of wondering whether or not anything I was doing was actually having a positive impact, I finally had a number that said, “You’re doing it right!”.  I know that my hours spent after school tutoring students made a huge difference in their scores, and I hope with my new 15-minute commute I’ll be inspired to put in even more time!

Comments

[Jen Lawrence]

I am so proud to hear this test score news! Way to go, Maria! I second your feelings on being the first-year teacher who improves more so than those teachers who have been around forever. Although I'm afraid I could answer this question in unfriendly terms, I wonder if there is a more authentic reason that we, as brand new teachers on the whole, have helped out students reach higher standards than those who should be pros by now? And while I'm sad to lose the prospect of you and James being in Tunica next year, I hope that 15 minute commute will make your life a little easier too. :)