One Pretty Swell Day

Well, I was so excited earlier to write about my day but I had things to do. Now I'm very tired and really just want to go to bed. However, today had a variety of wonderful things happen that deserve to go down in the books along with my negative stories. I got to school this morning around 6:20 (hmm...that's probably why I'm so tired tonight) and prepared for a day that had made me nervous all night. Today was my AP Seminar. There was a lot of drama that went in to that seminar but suffice it to say that I needed to be very organized and have the kids be really good to pull this off.

Ingredients for AP Seminar:
1 commons area (like an atrium) with somewhat noisy atmosphere
100 17-18-year-old students at 7:30 AM (one came in his bathrobe...I asked him if he wore his bathrobe to school every day and he said no but that this was "a statement" of protest against test-taking before 10 in the morning, haha)
110 test booklets of 60 questions each
110 essay sheets
a huge stack of scratch paper
4 attendance sheets
1 scantron machine
1 clock
and 1 teacher to manage the entire mess

Oddly enough it went off without much of a problem. I was shocked. They placed things in the proper piles, took their test dutifully and while I took attendance I looked out over my mob of students and you know...I was so darn proud of them! I have never seen most of them all in one place before and you know, i'm just so proud of them! I just love those kids and it made me happy to see them all together like one big family! haha...they probably didn't find it as pleasing as I did...BUT! Here's awesome thing #2 (#1 was that it went well), those kids...are geniuses! Phew! Average score on that practice test was 67%! Yes, I realize that's not a good score BUT they took this test cold turkey, over the course we took last semester (2 1/2 months ago). No studying. No review. All memory. AND! They only need 60% on the Multiple choice to pass! Many of them scored in the high 70s and into the high 80s!!! COLD TURKEY!! Man...I was shocked. I asked the first one how he did and he showed me 78%. I felt bad, but I said, "Are you serious?" and he was surprised too! I was so happy for them! They did learn something! Although I could say that it was because I taught them well, it honestly is not. Part of it may come from that, but most of it is just that these kids pick things up so well. So!!! I am much less stressed now!! YAY!

Minor awesome things came in the middle.

Awesome thing #3. In 7th period I got an envelope delivered but I didn't see who delivered it and the kids wouldn't tell me. On the outside it said, "Ms. Burdick. Please join us at the staff meeting this afternoon and open this when asked. Thanks!" I was intrigued and scared. All I could think of was how tomorrow is the day they're revealing this video thing that Matt thought up and I was praying that they weren't going to do something to me about it at the staff meeting. I get to the staff meeting and I'm kinda nervous. I see 4 of my girls up front. They give a presentation about bullying and I realize that the writing is Pria's handwriting. Then I get nervous that they're going to ask me to open the envelope and have to solve a situation about bullying from a teacher's perspective. However, what it was almost made me cry in the staff meeting.

They were talking about how sometimes little things like saying hello or writing a kind note can really have a positive affect on students who are dealing with many of these issues. They said they had picked 4 of their teachers that they wanted to encourage and honor and that they had sent them envelopes earlier that day. They wanted us to open our envelopes then and read them to ourselves. In my note they wrote about how much they appreciated all that I do in the classroom. They wrote "Teaching a class full of egotistical seniors definitely isn't easy, especially not when you're new to a school. Without you, the class is anarchy. You have gained the respect of possibly the most critical, judgemental group of people out there--us. Your students. Not only do students like you and respect you, you also make learning interesting for us. Your teaching style and classroom atmosphere have made us want to pay attention in AP Government, which is probably one of the most relevant and important subjects we could take at this point in time." I seriously almost cried. Lately, as you know, I have felt very anxious about my classroom, how my students see me, and whether what I'm doing is even sticking. They asked us to just share with the staff how we felt after reading the notes. I went last because I didn't know what to say. I was really blessed by those girls today and so proud of them too, for the way they stood up to teach the staff about bullying because they saw it as important.

I'll end this long story. Tomorrow is the day that Matt's video is released and I'm not really worried anymore. I saw many times today the respect of my students. I still feel insecure in what I do but I do know that even if I'm not perfect in my content knowledge, my students accept me anyway and they value me for the way I value them.

Reflection: I am blessed. And, I should have more faith in my students' loyalty and believe that the time I spent talking to Sam about why he didn't smile all through class, to Ann about the difficulties right now in her family life, and calming Vanessa's and Jessica's anxiety about the test is ultimately more important to life and to my students than how much class time was directly dedicated to AP preparation. Praise God for affirmation and for the ripples made from small things.

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