June 2012
Time for the sobs...
So a parent came by and dropped off a card for me…
“Thank you Richard for everything you have done for my daughter XXXXXX’s school. thank you for everything you have done over this past year; I truly appreciate it. Good luck in your future education. Keep in touch.”
I know it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s the end of the year. And some of my kids just graduated. And others just had their last day of school this year. And I’m probably not going to see most of them ever again. And two of my kids dropped by the school today (even though they didn’t have to be there) just to give me hugs before heading off for summer vacation.
Just emotions. Emotions everywhere.
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Cathedral Building: Give your students a survey. →
shapefutures.tumblr.com
That’s my advice for the day. Make a survey and give it to them. It doesn’t matter how young they are, if you can read them the questions.
Make it about anything. Make it about the books they want available in the classroom library, the color of the paper on your next bulletin board, the music…
I love this idea so much…as an idea. I’ve tried doing it in little ways in our school, but it’s definitely hard. The trouble I run into is that when it comes down to it, the kids aren’t dumb. If it doesn’t matter to them, they don’t tend to do it around here. So out of a class of 30 students, I’ll get maybe two that fill it out seriously.
I think this can be a really powerful tool if it’s coupled with student advocacy groups, personally. Like, if the survey revealed little, easy, fixable problems that students see, the school can then address those things immediately to show that student voices do matter. I haven’t done it myself, but I’d hope that from that gesture, the power of the surveys themselves would grow, and student investment in contributing to these things might increase.
Fortune and Glory: Senior Blues →
fortuneandglory.tumblr.com
One of the perks of teaching senior economics is that it’s a required course. Seniors must pass my class in order to receive their diploma. Particularly in the last few weeks of school, when all seniors can think about is graduating and getting the hell out, this simple fact makes convincing the…
Going through this right now with our seniors, even down to contacting their parents…
I applaud you, good sir.
