Staying the Course

Some of my favorite films involve characters who overcome the obstacles in their life to reach an ambitious goal. I often hope that my life is following the same kind of determination. As this school year comes to the end, I am realizing that this year was harder than ever to stay the course.
A major cause of my struggle was the move from second grade to fourth grade. Though making this move is something I always desired, I am seeing now that the adjustment is taking more time than what I expected. The thing I am finding most troubling, in running my race as a teacher, is acclimating to the aura of state testing. The pressure, push, and expectations surrounding state testing is much more than I first perceived. In reviewing all the time I have spent reviewing, practice testing, and gathering materials that may be on the state testing, I feel like I have lost a large chunk of valuable teaching time. It feels like in many ways that I am often modeling a robot and training my students to act as little minion robots. How does want escape this path?
My escape has been the immersion of a large collection of projects that induce a passion and level excitement that we have not tapped into earlier in the year. This is kind of like my reserve tank. To stand as a wall of opposition against the boredom of filling in bubbles with No. 2 pencils, we have embarked on a journey of creativity.
Some of the things we have created:
  • My Side of the Mountain dioramas from all natural materials found around the school.
  • Salt Dough Maps of the four regions of the United States.
  • Solar Cooker Pringle Cans for making hot dogs.
  • No Smoking TV ADs.
  • Experiment Merriment Days (each kid presents an experiment in front of the class).
  • Project Day (we split the class into 4-5 groups. We bring in dads and build pieces of furniture. This year we will be using pallets to create a desk, chandelier, coffee table, and more).
Are you facing the same pull from state testing? Is it bogging you down, or are you responding with actions that keep you on course?

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