An Opportunity

I am blessed to work in an incredible middle school full of faculty and staff willing to work hard and stretch their thinking. I am fortunate to be part of a culture that supports each other and can (usually) consider new ideas and approaches. I am also, well aware, that I probably drive some of my teachers crazy. Never mind the probably. It is most certainly true that I drive some of my teachers crazy! What I think these same teachers don't realize is, I drive myself crazy too. I take our jobs as educators very seriously. We work with other people's children and have this one chance to make our students feel heard and supported. Working in a middle school requires outside of the box thinking. Factory model schooling does not fit the middle schooler.

Our third marking period ended recently. In reviewing the failures, like we always do, I noticed over 12% of students were failing ELA for the third marking period. Some had not made it the marking period before either. The teachers and I met to strategize how to remedy this.

As a faculty, we were recently discussing some of the work by Rick Wormeli. (You can read more about that here.) He reminded us that grades were not to be used as rewards or validation. Grades are supposed to be an accurate representation of what the students can do.When we allow students to under earn grades, we are sending the message that what we assigned was not that important.

The two teachers agreed to giving the "failing" students INC for the time being. We decided to rearrange the afternoon schedule to allow students who owed substantial work time to catch up. I recruited any available teachers or teaching assistants to assist me in tutoring students in ELA. The teachers prepared the work that was owed and we set the date for this to happen: Friday afternoon right before the start of Spring Break. (In many ways, the most perfect time for this work. If you teach middle school, you'll understand.)

As the grade level looked beyond ELA, they discovered students in other classes needed time to catch up on missing assignments in their classes too! This is something the grade level has done before. So while they may have thought the idea was a form of meddling and top down decision making at first, they were familiar with the benefit of catching kids up before and had done so prior to today. Students were in Social Studies catching up on a technology project while other students were in ELA catching up on a recent assignment. One of the ELA teachers and I were in a third room with the students who had (almost) failed marking period three. As we started with the students, I was secretly relieved he was there. Even I needed reassurance we were on the right track for the work owed to the ELA teacher. (Imagine what the student with the failing grade was feeling.)

Each student had a project sheet back from the teacher that outlined the assignments and points earned so far. That sheet was helpful. We could tell what was owed immediately. We broke the students up into two groups to get started on like assignments and facilitated the work. Shortly after, another teacher showed up to help and we assigned her two students that needed to work on final drafts. That was a big help. We had three groups working on three different assignments and we were making progress.

Shortly into our work session, the students began to relax and accept help.  I am pretty sure they did not understand why we were making them complete the work. The marking period was over. Why did it matter? Why couldn't they take the failing grade instead of the INC that was appearing on their report card? But, we marched forward, kept them on task, and discussed the work and questions. I realized during the work session, as we asked questions and questions, these students knew the answers. For some, it even came quickly to them. We kept validating their work and they kept working.

Ten out of the thirteen students were able to catch up on their ELA work in this afternoon session. Two felt like they had a good handle on the work and committed to finishing over the break. One admitted he needed more time and would be willing to work again with me at recess when we returned from break.

At the end of the day, during dismissal, one of the boys whom I assisted (merely by prompting him to keep up the good work) sought me out to give me a high five. This same young man rarely said hello to me before today. After dismissal, I began to reflect on the day and realized the team showed  flexibility in their thinking and I needed them to know I appreciated that. I sent the following email:

I wanted to take a minute and thank you for your help today. I am well aware (more than you probably realize…) that my idea (to grant temporary incompletes) for today was way out of the box. But, upon reviewing the grades, especially in ELA,  I was struck by how many of our students were unable to show proficiency this marking period. The easy way out would have been for us to give them the grade they had at that time and then just move on. But in talking with (teacher names), they told me the work was more important than the actual grade. These were skills they needed the students to demonstrate.

With that in mind, we decided to hold the kids to completing and doing the work. As of this writing, I am still in the office, processing the day and was thinking out loud with a friend about all of it. He helped me see that what we provided the kids with today was an opportunity. Today was an opportunity to demonstrate competency, stick with-it-ness, and accountability. It would have been easier to give the students failing grades and start the new marking period.

But, that’s not what you did. What I saw were children engaged in ELA. These young men and women knew the story and could definitely complete most of the work assigned. Today was an opportunity to show them the work you assign matters and  that they will be held accountable to do it.

Days like today should be reminders to us about why we went into education in the first place. You don’t remember the number grades your teachers gave you. You remember how they made you feel. You remember if they believed in you.

Let today be our reminder to always do what’s best for kids….even when it requires more hands on deck than we are used to asking for.

Working with our students reminded me why I became a principal. We have a real opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our students.