Inspiration: Remembering why I am here

I notice my last few posts have been me talking about my frustrations and the things that are not working in my class.  I want to counter that by telling a story about one of the good things.  I do have good things that happen each day and I must not focus only on the bad things. 

I teach one period of 7th graders who are already taking 8th grade math.  Like a parent, I know I should not have favorite kids, but these guys are the bright spot of my day every day.  These students genuinely enjoy school and value learning.  They ask questions that blow me away.  We usually get to laugh and learn and I think I am teaching them a few things at least.  Last week during a warm up (3-4 problems we do at the beginning of class everyday), I gave them a problem I didn't know if they would know how to do. These students are more advanced than my other classes, but they certainly don't know everything.  The problem was adding and subtracting positive and negative integers. We will learn about this topic in class in the next unit. It was something of the form:  5 - (-2) = ?

A few students got the right answer, and most did not know how to do it.  I asked one student to share his correct answer and how he got it.  His explanation was so wonderful.  I expected him just say that he already knew that two negatives make positive from a previous math lesson.  He said that he remembered from science class that 2 negatively charged objects will repel each other.  So when he saw two negative signs, he figured they should be positive.  I thought that was a wonderful display of critical thinking.  I praised him in front of the class and I made sure to share the story with the other teachers.  I know I am not responsible for this student's prior knowledge, but I am going to do everything I can to make sure all of my students in all of my classes learn how to think and problem solve. 

This is a bright spot I like to think about when I am having trouble remembering why I am here.

Inspirational Profile: Wakefield High School

In today's Washington Post, Jay Mathews writes about an inspirational retired principal, Marie Shiels Djouadi, who spent over 20 years at Wakefield High School, in Arlington, VA.  A school like many others, with a large immigrant and low-income population,that was failing.  But it has seen dramatic changes since the 1980's, when Dr. Djouadi took the helm.  According to the article,

    "the school has raised state achievement test results significantly for its largely low-income students. It has tripled participation in Advanced Placement tests, while also raising its passing rate on the difficult three-hour exams. Its record, in a school where more than 70 percent of the students are Hispanic or black and at least 50 percent are low-income, led President Obama to make it the site of a major education address last September."