Being apart of the transition program has pretty much burned me out. Working with 30 at risk 9th grade students had been anything but easy this year. There were some success. But mostly failure. I still can't believe that I survived this year and lived to tell the tale. :-)
It was decided that instead of placing all the at risk students in one class (and have them feed off of each other), they would be mixed again with the regular student population for next school year. In a sense, this program was a trial program. Everyone figured that this might be a way to educate these students. The major problem that we (the transition team) saw with these students was that there were no positive role models (behavior, good grades, etc) and the students basically didn't progress the way they should have in the classroom. For example, I spent the first three months teaching social and behavior skills (I was told my administration to not focus on curriculum) to these students. Add to it: the administration provided no support to the teachers. It was a program that was doomed to fail from the start. All four core education teachers (including myself) felt that we couldn't do this program on our own. We were given no training in dealing with this type of student population. So a few of these students will move on to 10th grade with hardly any skills they should've developed this past school year. I'm not saying that I didn't do some great stuff with these kids because I did. However, as a whole, the program was not a success.
Other news . . . this will be the last year that I teach the local history course. No one in my department wanted to teach it so they dumped the class on a colleague that really didn't want it or have the passion to teach it. I feel bad for the students because I've been building up that course and a lot of students sign up for it because I teach it. Plus, I had started doing some interdisciplinary field trips this past year. I can guarantee those field trips won't happen. I'm sadden that I won't be able to teach this course but I'm moving on to something bigger . . .
I will be teaching a new course - AP European History. The course is a 12th grade elective and I have 37 students signed up (enough for two sections). I'm very excited about it but also a little scared. I will now have to be held accountable and responsible for teaching to a test. It's time to be professionally challenged and I think this may be the course to allow me to become a stronger educator in the classroom. And, I've never taught the higher end students before. This will be a nice change.
So to go back to my original title of this post: only the strong survive. That would be MDawg the survivor (start singing the Destiny's Child song if you like)! :-)
1 comment:
I know this year has been extremley stresssful. Take the time this summer to focus on you. i know you like to keep busy but you need to revamp and recharge yourself before you head back in a few months. Do things you want to do for you and nobody else. Look at next year with a new attitude and IT will be less stressful. But for now don't even think about the new school year just focus on the wonderful time you have for yourself the next few months :)
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