How many days in a row?

I'm inspired by a fellow blogger and challenge myself to an entry a day for the remainder of March. Here's a start--perhaps of something reasonably good.

Tomorrow I give the FCAT test to a small group of students. High-stakes testing, I hate it. The students I'll test are not likely to do well, so it's my job to encourage--even cheerlead a bit. I bought snacks; I know the drill. I still hate the whole idea of it. Last week another teacher at our school told the juniors (who are retaking the test) they should take the test "as if your life depended on it---because it does." Just what kids who've failed the test already need to hear, right? That's simply too high a stake! Dum, da, dum, da DUM! Your life?! Not even close! Don't pass this time? There is another time. Chances will come again and again. The quality of the test iteself is questionable; that's the nicest word I can think for it. Students may score a 15 on the ACT reading to substitute for the FCAT score. They may take the test as many times as they like. The messages they should be hearing are much simpler. There are many roads to every goal. Some obstacles are arbitrary, but we overcome them anyway. You can do this. You will do this. Not, never--you better do this. Seems to me that no message makes a passive-aggressive teenager want to perform less. But what do I know? I'm just a teacher.

It's about reading and angels

This piece by Garrison Keillor, a voice who sounds like an old friend, shatters my cynicism, if only for a little while. Thanks to Swift and Change Able for this one.

Bless their hearts

In case you didn't know, the title is southern code for "these folks are clueless." So I direct the phrase both at the well-meaning guidance counselor who sent us all the article containing the following, and at the kids who really do need us to teach them this stuff; it's appalling how many do. Here's what I should be teaching along with reading, writing, vocabulary and literature:

• having stable relationships with peers
• possessing well-developed problem solving skills
• considering realistic future plans
• having a positive sense of being able to achieve and deal effectively with tasks
• experiencing success in one or more areas of their life
• being able to effectively communicate
• possessing a strong attachment with at least one adult
• acceptance of responsibility for themselves and their behavior

I do like to think I make a small dent in the two I've put in red, but the others they'll have to pick up along the way. If some of it happens in my class, (maybe that fourth bullet point), that's great. Just please don't make me the object of a strong attachment. And I remember a long, ridiculous, conversation with a tearful parent when she believed I'd dashed her child's confidence forever when I suggested he might need to study more if he expected to get into an Ivy League school, so I'm not big on helping kids make realistic plans.

I had a little laugh when I read the list during school today. It was nothing like the laugh I had reading the standards for a sixth grade history class I once was preparing to teach that began "The student will understand history from the beginning of time to the Renaissance." Who wrote that? The state education brainiacs, of course. Nevertheless, I did save this list to look at and share as I knew the teachers in our blog circle might enjoy it. Which ones would you say your teaching style hits?

Several other bloggable moments happened today, but there are so many papers to grade, I must do a few before my energy is totally gone.