The Highs and Lows of Teaching

This month has been filled with many highs and lows. For the first time I question whether I can make it through this. Whether I have what it takes to complete this mission. I thought that October was suppose to be the hardest month, but for me it has been February. The students’ behaviors have seem to have gotten worse than last semester. Also the state science test is on March 07, 2007. Very few of my students are taking preparation for the test seriously. The students were given a practice MCT the second week in February, and the average score was about fifty percent. This was the third practice test they have been given this year. The scores should have been around seventy-five percent. This makes me question whether I am doing my job. I can say that many of them did improve from the first test, which was the same test as the third practice test. Actually all of them improved. This is a great plus. Back to teaching in general. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I am learning so much about myself. I always thought I was one of those people who had it all together. Now I question how much I really have it together. I look in the mirror don’t even recognize myself. Who am I and when did I change so much? Has teaching in the Delta changed me this much? Or is this something that naturally happens when you enter the “real world.” I am filled with emotion, which is a good thing I guess. On the other hand, I am a stronger person than I ever imagined myself to be. I get up every morning and give my best no matter how many bad days I have had. That is the way it is with teaching. I have a some bad days and some good days. But I know that my suffering will be well worth it in the end. I am not doing this for myself, I am doing it for the children. I am making difference. Maybe I can inspire one child to reach for the stars and follow their dreams. Sometimes I can see these changes happening. I see it when that one student who misbehaves changes their conduct, when that one student who has been struggling passes a test, and when the students who do not understand the lesson stay after school to ask for assistance. If only I could get these changes to occur more often. For now I am happy with the progress. Although it is very little, it is progress. However, I will strive to bring out the best in my students. I will do my best to get these moments to occur more often.

Athletics In School

Athletics in schools has its perks, as well as its flaws. Sports in schools are used to help teach students the importance of the development of fundamental skills, competitiveness, dedication, commitment, and good sportsmanship. However, sports have become driven by fans, school boards, and communities as a must win at any cost game. The real reasons for sports have been overshadowed by town’s demands of winning. The love for the sport has been substituted by the love of winning. Across the nation many coaches have been plagued with the problem of overlooking the real reasons for sports to satisfy the demands of their bosses. Coaches have be transformed into the modern day “Gladiators,” meaning to stay employed they must do everything in their power to win. Winning is not an option, it’s their only choice. Most teachers have the stigma that coaches have it easy because they do not have to worry about preparing students for state test or worry about getting a class to understand a particular lesson. Many of them don’t realize the magnitude of the stress to win that is place on a coach’s shoulders. In teaching if thirty percent of your students fail, there’s hardly any thing done about it. However, if a coach loses thirty-fifty percent of the his or her games, he or she will be out of a job. Coaches also have the task of trying to teach the players plays that will help the child to display his or her skills, as well as making sure the players are on top of there priorities in the classroom to be eligible to play. The demands of winning are so high in the “Delta” it is ridiculous. It’s like the community doesn’t care about the player’s education, but they only care whether the team wins each and every game. The “Delta” has proven to be the most hostile place to coach in; if you can make here, you can make it anywhere. Which is the same with teaching; if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. The Delta’s natives constantly criticize coaches of not knowing how to coach after every lost. With all the crazy demands of the community of being great, you would think that the town has a long tradition of being state champions or of at least having winning seasons. Wrong, the town has never won a championship in anything. They have came close but no cigar. Coaches rarely stay in these towns for long periods of town. They often leave after one year or after a winning season. For instance, the girls basketball team has had five different coaches in the span of five years. Two of the coaches left after having a winning seasons. It all ties back, to the demands of winning put on the coaches by the community. It seems like the community should be taught that there is more to sports than winning. Their should be a greater satisfaction in knowing that one tried their best and gave their all to win but did not succeed this time. However next time, I will triumph and win. This attitude of expecting nothing but your personal best will then carry over into the classroom. That is the key to athletics in school, not the love of winning.