End of the School Year Feels: The Output That Truly Matters
The end of the school year is bittersweet for so many and teachers are no exception. There's the sweetness of celebrating a wonderful year alongside your students. There's the sweetness of summer- looking forward to having more time to spend with loved ones and especially the mental break summer provides for us from all that comes with the rewarding and challenging job of teaching.
There's also something bitter about the end of the year: the ending of a safe, empowered, school family you spent all year cultivating. The ending of sharing with your students, bonding with them, learning with them, from them.
I shed tears every year, for all of it- the bitter and the sweet.
As THIS particular school year wraps up, my feelings are all there in a big way as I AM TAKING NEXT YEAR OFF. My reflection, too, is heightened more this year than any as I prepare to step away from the classroom for a minute.
One of the things teachers spend time doing at the end of the year is thinking about, processing, and diving deep into the output of their students: progress, growth, impact, changes from the beginning of the year until the end. All of this factors in as teachers create report cards.
For many of us, teachers are also required to think of the output of their students in terms of how each of them performs on an assessment- what's your data? Are you proficient? How do you rank? Those answers often get tied to us as educators and are used to evaluate how WE do OUR jobs. This reduces my students to faceless numbers, part of data equations to judge if they've learned successfully in my classroom.
I do care and honor this piece of my students' story: I collect countless amount of evidence- work my students have done to show proficiency. I give countless amounts of feedback, opportunities for revisions, learning from mistakes. I pour over report cards, trying to make sure I am capturing our year, giving parents plenty of information on their child as learner.
However, the output of my students I care DEEPLY, PASSIONATELY, FERVENTLY, WHOLE-HEARTEDLY about is my students' output as HUMAN BEINGS.
See this photo above? This is an area in our classroom where we've showcased all the SERVICE our team has provided over the years. Not a single one of these plaques or thank you letters or acknowledgements of good deeds done was started with MY idea. This was all honoring student voice, student choice. As my students learn about the world and the people in it, they have, thankfully, also wanted to CHANGE IT and MAKE IT BETTER, which, in my mind, is a sign of a successful school year as well as a life well-lived.
I've done so many things over these last twelve school years and my students and I have been measured many different ways. But for me, this area of my room is all the output that matters- caring enough to heat a classroom all the way across the world, in Afghanistan, for a year. Sending other children a world away to school so they too, can have the power that comes with knowledge and intelligence. Being passionate enough to take your learning outside our walls and into your future. Knowing enough about your community and the needs out there to run your own food drive or start your own recycling program. Feeling empowered enough to share your voice to bring your own creations and dreams to fruition. THAT is learning.
A teacher I looked up to when I was brand new had signs in her room that said: You have to be able to READ to learn about the world. You have to be able to WRITE to change the world. That is how we run our classroom: We learn about the world so that we can go out and change it, serve it.
Next year, I will be away from the classroom, but I know a piece of my heart will always be there no matter what happens next. I will use this gift of time to pour my love of learning a little extra into my four boys at home. Taking next year off will also allow me to explore my passions OUTSIDE the four classroom walls: writing, learning about the world, serving the world, and bringing globally-minded, integrated content to kids so THEY can learn about the world and serve the world.
The end of the year IS bittersweet for sure, this year especially, but I'm looking forward into what is next... Stay tuned...
HAPPY SUMMER VACATION!!!!!
There's also something bitter about the end of the year: the ending of a safe, empowered, school family you spent all year cultivating. The ending of sharing with your students, bonding with them, learning with them, from them.
I shed tears every year, for all of it- the bitter and the sweet.
As THIS particular school year wraps up, my feelings are all there in a big way as I AM TAKING NEXT YEAR OFF. My reflection, too, is heightened more this year than any as I prepare to step away from the classroom for a minute.
One of the things teachers spend time doing at the end of the year is thinking about, processing, and diving deep into the output of their students: progress, growth, impact, changes from the beginning of the year until the end. All of this factors in as teachers create report cards.
For many of us, teachers are also required to think of the output of their students in terms of how each of them performs on an assessment- what's your data? Are you proficient? How do you rank? Those answers often get tied to us as educators and are used to evaluate how WE do OUR jobs. This reduces my students to faceless numbers, part of data equations to judge if they've learned successfully in my classroom.
I do care and honor this piece of my students' story: I collect countless amount of evidence- work my students have done to show proficiency. I give countless amounts of feedback, opportunities for revisions, learning from mistakes. I pour over report cards, trying to make sure I am capturing our year, giving parents plenty of information on their child as learner.
However, the output of my students I care DEEPLY, PASSIONATELY, FERVENTLY, WHOLE-HEARTEDLY about is my students' output as HUMAN BEINGS.
See this photo above? This is an area in our classroom where we've showcased all the SERVICE our team has provided over the years. Not a single one of these plaques or thank you letters or acknowledgements of good deeds done was started with MY idea. This was all honoring student voice, student choice. As my students learn about the world and the people in it, they have, thankfully, also wanted to CHANGE IT and MAKE IT BETTER, which, in my mind, is a sign of a successful school year as well as a life well-lived.
I've done so many things over these last twelve school years and my students and I have been measured many different ways. But for me, this area of my room is all the output that matters- caring enough to heat a classroom all the way across the world, in Afghanistan, for a year. Sending other children a world away to school so they too, can have the power that comes with knowledge and intelligence. Being passionate enough to take your learning outside our walls and into your future. Knowing enough about your community and the needs out there to run your own food drive or start your own recycling program. Feeling empowered enough to share your voice to bring your own creations and dreams to fruition. THAT is learning.
A teacher I looked up to when I was brand new had signs in her room that said: You have to be able to READ to learn about the world. You have to be able to WRITE to change the world. That is how we run our classroom: We learn about the world so that we can go out and change it, serve it.
Next year, I will be away from the classroom, but I know a piece of my heart will always be there no matter what happens next. I will use this gift of time to pour my love of learning a little extra into my four boys at home. Taking next year off will also allow me to explore my passions OUTSIDE the four classroom walls: writing, learning about the world, serving the world, and bringing globally-minded, integrated content to kids so THEY can learn about the world and serve the world.
The end of the year IS bittersweet for sure, this year especially, but I'm looking forward into what is next... Stay tuned...
HAPPY SUMMER VACATION!!!!!
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