be a better teacher

Come tomorrow I am officially a former teacher. My wife took a job in Washington D.C., so I won’t be able to return to my job. We are leaving for D.C. this Sunday.

I taught Middle School for 6 years and believe I had a positive impact on my kids. Every year my kids’ test scores improved. For example, we recently finished Saturday School and my students went up 15% points on average. It was easily the highest testing gain for all Saturday School classes.

We move more kids from ESL to regular English than any school in our district. The ESL to English re-designation criteria is established by the district and based on state test results, so there isn’t any room for gerrymandering.

It sucks leaving in mid-year, but the schedule would change anyway. There is always some mid-year upheaval. Some kids flunk. Some transfer to regular English. Some move to other school districts.

Still, I’ll really miss the kids. Last week four of my 6th grade girls heard I was leaving and cried. Of course I teared up. I’m sure tomorrow will be an emotional day.

Still, it’s time to move on to something else. I plan on writing a book about teaching. Specifically what worked for me and what didn’t.

This academic year is officially the year of the marble. They play marbles at nutrition. They play marbles at lunch. They play marbles between classes. It’s nothing but marbles, marbles, and yet more marbles. The kids are obsessed with them.

I’ve never been much for confiscating playthings, but I’ve made an exception this year. I’m collecting “contraband” marbles and keeping them in a large candy jar. The original plan was to take a class photo, make a student list, and write a letter explaining where the marbles came from. At year’s end I’ll drop the sealed marble jar into a random lake for future divers (or whomever) to find.

Problem is, after only a month my jar is nearly full. At this rate I’ll end up with close to 8 jars full of marbles. Now I’m thinking of doing the same thing, but scattering the jars in random high mountain lakes throughout the western U.S.

I’ll film the drops and put them on YOU TUBE, complete with location clues. The kids are crazy about this plan. They love it. Many have already made clear their intention to search for and recover the marbles.

To be continued….....

Our school kicked major butt on state testing last year. Our API score jumped to 570, up 21 points from last year. To give you an idea of where we were, it was at 310 the year before I started (2001).

For 2007-08, I’ve already started testing for CELDT, and should switch half my kids to sheltered ESL by December. The other kids should see their scores go up in May 2008 (but their scores won’t be known until August 2008).

Should be a great year.

It started today. My fresh faced 6th grade ESL/History students completed their first day of middle school. It looks like a great group, but we’ll see how it goes.

My goal is to get as many kids from ESL to regular English as soon as possible. My kids are all either Below or Far Below Basic (and yes, I teach in the ‘hood) for state English testing.

Last year my kid’s testing scores were good (most kids went up one level). This year I really want to knock the scores out of the park. I have a lot of new ideas, which mixed with what I know already works, could make this year really special.

Wish me luck.