why do i get the best students every year?
I know what you’re thinking: she’s hoping for great wedding gifts from all her students! Quite frankly, I’m offended that you would think so low of me! I have principles and dignity, people (though it wouldn’t hurt my feelings, kiddos, feel free to drop anything off any time).
Okay, I guess I should TRY and be serious – though I’m not very good at it.
I truly believe that I get to teach the best kids every year because, to me, they ARE the best kids. There’s some uber-important research out there that I can’t be bothered to look at – but I remember vaguely from graduate school – about this study where they told one teacher that they were getting super smart kids and they told another teacher they were getting super not-smart kids with the irony being that both sets of kids were equally super smart, right? And what was the result? The teacher that thought she had the super smart kiddos worked hard and the kids tested high whereas the teacher that thought her kids weren’t super smart taught DOWN to them and they ended up not improving at all.
You know what that means in real life talk? That means LAME! That means NOT FAIR! So I take the stance that my students are actually the most well-behaved (a teacher can dream, right?), intelligent, insightful, funny, cool bunch of kids ever and without a doubt THEY ALWAYS ARE. Sometimes it takes a while for us to connect…judging by this blog, I think you can probably guess that my classroom isn’t exactly, uh, “traditional”…but when we do inevitably connect, it rocks.
And now here we are, embarking on my favorite journey – BLOGGING. It’s never pretty at the start, but in about 2.5 seconds, my students will completely own me with their savvy understanding of all things blog. I’ve just updated my blogroll with students from the last three years and it amazes me how much my 2010 students have evolved and grown in their reflections and connections and it excites me beyond comprehension to see how much my wee 2012 kiddos will do the same.
Right now, they are wary of blogging. They just want to Facebook. Well, I’m a huge fan of “The F Word”. When our school closed thanks to a little thing called H1N1 and our F Block class had a huge skype meeting which a couple of students couldn’t attend, Staci S. took notes of everything that we discussed, posted it on Facebook, and tagged everyone in class. If you want your students to look at something quick, put it on Facebook. Seriously, stop fighting and just do it. Either it owns you or you own it.
Speaking of owning it, I’ve gotta jet because F block is about to present selected scenes from Bill S.’s Macbeth. And judging by the other two classes performances and the amount of practice and memorization and work that’s gone into it, I’m sure it’s going to knock my socks off. Good thing I brought two pairs today, huh?
photo: s. patterson / malaysia 11.09 / “bright lights”
hahah ms p, you do always get the cool students
)
blogging last year was awesome- gave me an excuse to write on a regular basis, and now i cant seem to stop (it’s a very time consuming habit, unfortunately.) reading about that study makes me wonder what some of my teachers think of me. im getting kinda worried now.. :/
we’re awesome
: ( It’s seriously too bad that I never got to learn from you. I wanted to get your super duper teaching at least once.
The experiment reminds me about a similar experiment where they experimented with patients. They told a group of cold patients that medicine A would cure them 100%, when it was actually just sugar, while the other group was told that medicine B is just being tested, when it was actually a real cold medicine. The result was shocking: the first group that ate sugar got better while the other group, who believed the real medicine was not effective, didn’t get better as fast as the other group. This means it’s mostly up to what you believe is your situation. (well for minor diseases I guess.)
: )
I love your ending haha. I honestly think kids are getting smarter as years go by. The juniors and sophomores seem to be smarter than when we were their age. My sister, who’s a freshman, is surprising me every other day with her intelligence.
Ms. Patterson, at first I thought you genuinely believed you got the best students.
Now I know you’re just using psychology on yourself.
I tried using that method this weekend; i enjoy studying, studying is fun, i enjoy studying, studying is fun…
Hopefully it’ll take affect soon :/
I mean what can I say…
we were just born this way – perfect just the way we are
I’m sorry but I know you love the class of 2011 more than any other class- yes, deep down in your heart Ms. P.
There are so many blog lovers out there and I will never forget to keep on blogging wherever I go… although I always procrastinate blogging (I don’t know how THAT happens), I won’t STOP blogging for sure. I named my blog, “I’m About to Post Something- I Swear” and this totally motivates me to blog hahaha- miss you Ms. P!