Never Give Up

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It's 7:37 pm and once again I am in the school parking lot. My son plays in the marching band and twice a week they practice until eight o'clock.  I take the gift of afternoon time and catch up on giving students feedback or updating the digital grade book. I take time organizing books or creating handouts, talking with team members or planning units. I enjoy the time and the work.

This afternoon four kids came in to do make up work during resource (tutoring)  time. They didn't need me, so I met with a new-to-our-school,-second year teacher to talk unit planning and instructional sequencing. He and I couldn't help but listen to the kids chat about their cultures. 

Songs were shared. We heard laughter and exclamations. Stories too. And there were some dance moves. It was adorable. I wished I taken a picture--captured their happy. One  moment kids were on their feet showing each other-- how to swivel a hip (Salsa) or straight arm the sprinkler move In that moment, I did not want to be anywhere else.

Kids share such joy even when they are procrastinating.

The group did not finish the make up work they had planned to finish. They got sidetracked  talking  to each other. They got sidetracked sharing stories. Song and dance sort of took over. But you know  what? Sometimes, that is exactly what kids need. Time to connect face to face. Time to share stories and laugh. Time to explore and make a friend. 

There is time enough to get the work of school done. 

Sometimes we monkey around. Doesn't everyone. From our syllabus, see it on Smore here. 

In my class kids get time. I value learning and I don't give up.

The lowest F grade is a 30%, not a zero (I have a gospel reading on 50%s and 30%s and zeroes but that is another story).

In my class, students are allowed to redo any assignment to demonstrate additional learning if they earn a C or below OR if they are not satisfied with their grade (and we discuss time/cost and grade benefit). I ask kids to redo work within a week of the feedback --more to help them manage time, tasks and keep up than to gate keep. Even if they miss the week-- which is the tenth grade team's deadline--there is always a way.

When I was in my first five years of teaching I called it, "Let's Make a Deal." I held make up sessions. I cajoled kids and talked with parents. I collected make up work in bulk stapled to a dot-matrix progress report print out. Now, I monitor more closely, so the bulk of the work doesn't feel like a windmill or an impossible weight.

I talk to kids over time and if what I'm doing in class is not working I enlist parents' as helpers. We all , teachers, parents, administrators, want the best for the kids in our care. Teenagers do not always trust that as truth. But it is. 

I live my belief in learners. I work it. I walk it. I pray it. I just do it: week by week, day by day, class period by class period. I work that belief on my feet in class as I confer with kids about what they wrote in their journals. I work it in bean bags after school during poetry club when we share what we've written. I walk it and pray it there too. And in the parking lot waiting for my band son or in the stadium watching my Bear sons play football or in the gymnasium watching my Bear players volley, dribble or wrestle. I pray that belief in learners during fourth quarters and final years when the seniors I've tutored to pass our state test white knuckle their way through to a diploma.

I never give up.