This morning, I am up knowing that there will only be two more days here! Friday the 13th is our last day teaching.
Yesterday, the students took the infamous CRCT (Georgia state test). It was definitely an experience. If these students do not pass the test, they do not go onto 4th grade.
The expectations for my students at Woodson Elementary School in Atlanta are very different from the expectations that were held for me as a third grader in West Des Moines, Iowa.
The injustice in the system is so prevalent the moment to glimpse into the system.
What makes for this huge achievement gap?
When "average" people are polled, they say that parents, lack of parental involvement, and parents who do not care about their students are what cause the gap. This feeds into the bias that poor parents do not care about their children.
However, the same poll among educators comes up with a different answer: Low expectations, poor teacher quality, and poor principal quality are what cause this gap between the rich students and the poor students.
So, I guess I am about to start working on closing this gap.
There were some definite frustrations this summer, and I question if the students learned anything; however, this summer is making me very excited to teach in Miami!
Lyrics I'm Humming
Ben Harper: Change the World With My Own Two Hands
Ben Harper: Change the World With My Own Two Hands
3 comments:
TWO MORE DAYS!!! YAY! You're almost on your way to Miami. I sent you that song, "This Is Miami," so I hope you're able to get it. I'm also hoping your students passed that test. It will let you know how you did teaching them this summer. Have a good last two days!
oooo rapper...
I love you SOOOO much and I'm SOOOOOO proud of you.
Selfishly, I'm glad you're almost done so I can talk to you again!!
Know you're prayed for.
anna
Megan, I am starting at the beginning, even though I just read through all of your posts backwards. I love that Ben Harper song and I think it portrays perfectly what you are doing. I am really, really proud of you for stepping up to teach and bridge the gap. Don't be so hard on yourself if you are not always the perfect teacher - obviously you don't have the experience to do that right away - but realize what a huge thing it means just that you are there at all and that you have chosen your students over a million of other things you could be doing. The funny thing is that I am quite sure that even before you met them, you loved each one of them. That will be evident to them and that, maybe even more than the subjects that you teach them, will change their lives. Good luck! Keep the updates coming! - Brittany
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