Helping Students Succeed

Last week in Quarterly Review 7, I talked about flourishing in my clearly defined role at FyA 44. O I feel I'm doing at teaching my elementary school students. What follows is just an example of what it means to be a better teacher.

Most classes here are done in a class-specific notebook. All the assignments are pasted in there, grades are based on notebooks. Last year, I collected notebooks once per term. I spent a week grading all the notebooks and use those grades to determine students' grades for the trimester. If a student didn't hand in their notebook, they were so out of luck and failed for the term.

This year, I knew I could do better. So with the end of the trimester in sight, here's what I did. At the end of August I collected notebooks and graded all the work. The first week of September I returned students their notebooks and brought extra copies of all the handouts from the term. That week the lesson plan was simple: go through your notebook and improve your work.

Last week, I collected notebooks once again. Most students had improved their work. They had put in the effort needed to pull their grades up at least a letter. So when they get report cards in a few weeks, no one will fail because I didn't give them multiple chances to succeed. Students will have earned better grades. It took a little more effort on my part, but I believe that effort was worth it.