The one idea that always fills me both with hope and dread is that “of all the variables under a school’s control, the single most decisive factor in student achievement is excellent teaching.” This quote, which I’ve seen before, is in the section on teachers and principals. I believe this quote to be true, and yet when I see our PSSA scores jump and crash as they do, when most of us are teaching the same classes but to different students, I have my doubts. How can what I do work so well one year and then fail so miserably they next? I know I am tweaking things each year, but not so much as to contribute to such fluctuations. Yes, the students are different each time, but that is the way the game is played and I’ll have to learn to play it better, especially with more and more emphasis being placed on test results.
The good news is that with each new school year we do get the chance to start again. I know of few jobs that have the “do over” aspect that a new school year has for teachers. Sport is the only other thing that comes to mind. If you or your team has a bad year you can rededicate yourself to the cause, try to identify your weaknesses and, if possible, eliminate them. You start the next season 0-0, with a clean batting average, and just as much a chance to win as anybody. That optimism, the hope that fans and players alike share in the pre-season of each year, is the same I feel at this time of year. Some of you have been doing this longer than I have and many of you are more secure in what you do. I’ve always known that I have real room for improvement - just look how this is being completed in the last hours of the last day for submission. Unfortunately for me, that’s typical.
So now we are here at the start – the chance to make it better, to make it perfect, to raise the good to the great, to squash the comfort of “average” and to make the difference in our kids lives. We will do it by what we help them know and by what we make them feel.
This quote reminded me of one of my favorite quotes that I had taped to my desk in the first school that I taught and always try to remember.
“I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.”
Dr. Haim Ginott
This quote helps me keep things in perspective. I know on any given day the most important thing we can teach may have nothing to do with English. It may just boost someone’s confidence to make them feel better about school or learning in general – to decide to give a bit more effort or to relax just a bit when they are unraveling under stress.
Here’s to a year where the students want to learn, the teachers are inspired and our country finds itself closer to realizing its potential.
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