Joanne Jacobs referenced an article about "the kids nobody wants." These are the kids that will cause you to fail AYP. The kids that need extra help in order to do well (or even semi-well).
The kids that the governor here wants to grade our raises on.
The kids that Atlanta Public Schools changed test grades for to make AYP (when 58 school have a problem, 2/3 of the schools in your district, it is not the principals who are making the decision.).
The kids I went into teaching to teach.
I find gifted harder - you have to work harder, know more, be on your game, to reach them but they will work with you. I want a class like this next year, but I also want the ones that I have.
The ones who will not bring paper and pencil to a math class.
The ones who walk in and say "I can't learn math" and then will do nothing that you ask them to.
The ones that WHEN they finally grasp something, look at you in awe and say "I NEVER understood math before."
But, do I want to be judged on their work ethic or my own? Duh.
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I would like to be judged on MY work ethic, thank you, NOT my students' work ethic, for, alas, they have none.
Oh, MAN, but I struggle with this again and again and again....
I find myself doing the "I can lead these horses to water" thing a lot. *I* show up to work, excited and prepared. *I* demonstrate effort and enthusiasm in the work that I do. *I* bring in a variety of materials to encourage a depth and breadth of understanding in my students. That many of them (oh, SO many of them) continually refuse to play along with me IS NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY.
I had an (idiot) coworker tell me that I need to be more proactive in trying to reach the "hard ones." Her modus operandi is to twist herself into impossible shapes and to work FAR harder than ANY of her students do, and they KNOW how to manipulate her. I WILL NOT be manipulated. I have something valuable to offer, and I give it to you freely and with love. Whether you choose to take it, however, is YOUR concern, not mine.
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