epiphany

Today was a long day. As most of you are aware I am training for the MS150 this year from Frisco to Fort Worth. This 150 mile bike ride helps to raise money for MS research. With this large ride looming over my head I had a weekend that included a serious 65 mile ride yesterday. I was exhausted this morning and fought the urge as all people do to go to work. I reported for work and survived through the day. In my AP class I gave a test, and that test taught me more in a few minutes than I have learned in a long time.

  Tests are something that all of us remember from school. My district requires that we give three tests per grading period. Each class I teach has a slightly different testing dynamic. In AP the tests are given do not have any multiple choice and have only a free response section. The last few weeks I have been talking about how if they are having trouble with the subject matter that they need to come in and get help. Today before the test I was inundated with kids that needed help. Each asked really basic questions. These were questions that we cleared up the first week. So after giving the test and seeing them slave away at it, I had a conversation with one of my AP students. She is an A student, and told me that she studied by looking over the packet that I had given them. It was this that gave me my epiphany. I have issues with Pre-AP kids that are having trouble passing. Each one says that they study and each one is frustrated with the process. The answer is that these kids are missing a fundamental thing that helped me to succeed in high school and college. They are missing the tools to study. I can work all of the examples that I want, but if they do not go home and study it does nothing except confuse them later. Our calculus class has the same problem. This was a big thing for me. I did not have to be taught how to study. When I was having trouble with a subject my mom or dad would give me something that they would use to help them study. When I got to college I used those techniques and developed some of my own. This little thing has helped me to realign my thought for next year and for the rest of this year. I need to help them prepare outside of class.

  This really sounds like a dumb statement, but it is one that as a good student I had never really come across. When a take a look at the best teachers at our school and those that I had in the past, I see those that helped prepare outside of class. As an educator I spend so much time inside my own experiences that sometimes I forget that the kids need the entire process. This week I  am going to focus on ways that we can improve the entire experience of our education system. It starts one teacher at a time, and results in lives that are changed for the better.

Until tomorrow,
A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.
- Anonymous