I am sad to say that I'm excited the school year is almost over. My expectations proved to be SOOOO very different than the reality of teaching. Maybe it was the population? Maybe it was district expectations? Maybe it was reliving elementary school of the 1970s...whatever it was, I will be able to say I survived first grade.
Today was the big test for my First Graders. Called DIBELs, it assesses risk for reading. We don't use it for risk assessment, we use it for a benchmark (something that the creators of the test clearly stated was NOT the purpose of the test). The golden number is 40: 40 words in one minute. The 1st grade goal was 60% of the students reaching the 40 word goal. About 50% of my English Language Learners made the goal, which is pretty good. Only three little darlings are considered at risk, an even better number going into second grade. Three other little darlings tested at above 70 words/minute. This morning we did alot of mental preparation: we cheered for ourselves, we practiced High Frequency Words, we talked about reading strategies, we cheered some more, we engaged in positive mental feedback...and I think that, all in all, they did great. I'm really proud of the little honey-bunnies.
I had to go to a training tonight, the last of the year, for first year teachers. We spent a lot of time reflecting on what we'd learn, our greatest success and our greatest failures, what we'll do differently next year, etc. I left the question about the greatest lesson I learned blank because I just needed more time to think about it. But driving home I think I know what my greatest lesson is: it's not about me. It's not if I like the lesson, if I think it worked, if it is easy on me. Success is measure on how they do, how they grow, how they succeed. It's all about them. I guess I'll see if it works next year...
