Student Impact Paper-Struggle or Strive.doc

I spent over sixty days with some of the chattiest twelve year-olds, many of whom were dealing with emotional and behavioral issues. Just today, one of my students from my student teaching cohort showed me her two razor cut up arms. There is rarely a peaceful day in this building of strong-willed tweens. Yet, those same chatty 7th graders were also quite witty insightful students, who were unabashedly vocal about being "bored", underwhelmed and unmotivated. At times, some of our model students made little efforts after geting lost in the constant chaos of the classroom.

Yet, we all learned when we began to pay attention to our students.  They wanted relevant texts that would generate lively discussions. They wanted to relate. They wanted to be intrigued and challenged. Learning occured when my love for these students coupled with my love for teaching superceded difficult days getting them to just "stop talking!" Learning occured when I pulled students to the side to say, "Look, you're far too bright to behave so foolishly," followed by a smile, a pat on the back, a mutual apology and mutual declaration that we would do better.

In the attached pages and pictures, you will see the faces of students who walked in to class admittedly believing they did not stand a chance at excellence.  The school received an F grade and for many, it just proved they were "failures." Many of the faces and narratives behind those faces are that of students who evolved as learners and as people. I now see a glow in Jaden's face.  Jaden had given up on himself.  Diamond, Sade and Sogarra continuously use details from the story, coupled with background knowledge to advance their points. Stephen, Kevon and Jahmiel are highly competitive with each other and it's just awesome.  They are still very loud and disruptive, but it is because they often find themselves in a debate over any and everything. It's just absolutely awesome! Ha!

While many ideas did not concretize, like our class blog and student-based newsletter, these students, by the end of my student teaching experience, my students were stronger readers, writers and thinkers.  I go see them as often as possible to be certain they are staying on task, answer academic questions, give personal advice, lend books and printing resources for their projects. 

We became a school family.