Saturday, March 17, 2018

Small Victories

The email was just one line long. Sometimes that's all you need. One line to attest to the fact that what you are doing is somehow making a difference. 

The desire to make a difference, after all, is what prompts most of us teachers to go into education in the first place. It's easy, though, to feel like you're missing the mark on most days when you live in a world that measures value only by test scores. Some of the most profound progress a child makes doesn't show up anywhere in their precious data.

Sometimes it appears in an email from the speech teacher:
A. told me he would like a different speech time because he doesn't like missing writing...
It was just one line long, but it felt like a victory nonetheless.

7 comments:

  1. Such a smart, sweet one line email! YES! What a victory!

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  2. He doesn't like missing your class... that says it all. It's so true that we can get caught up in test scores, when that isn't what really matters.

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  3. I am at an age where messages like that make me weepy.

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  4. Measuring value by test scores -- yes, that can certainly make a teacher feel inadequate. Enjoy your victory! :-) ~JudyK

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  5. I received a nice text from a coworker today too! It's the little things.

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  6. I bet your teacher's heart leap with joy reading this line of the email.


    Great going.

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  7. How wonderful! I love how you can see the victory and growth in this one little preference.

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