Wacky Wednesday

Today was Wacky Wednesday, and it certainly lived up to its name! The students were actually more focused that I'd expected since people were wearing their clothes backward, had spiked hair, and wore their shoes on the wrong feet.

Report cards get sent home this week, so the classroom teacher has been busy assessing the students so she can fill out their report cards. She is a very laid back teacher. She calls the student to her desk and does the assessments that way. It's a very nonthreatening process for the student and is less intimidating than sitting in a quiet conference room where you'd be able to cut the tension with a knife.

I've been thinking about report cards and wondering about their instructional value. All teachers monitor their student's progress more than the three times each school year report cards go home. So if teachers already have that data and are keeping up with how the students are doing, then the report card only serves as a communicative tool by which parents can see how the student is progressing. So the checks and minuses on the paper are just arbitrary symbols which represent what the parents choose to make them represent. Some parents would make a big deal about a student getting a minus in math and work with the student at home for 30 minutes each night on their flash cards. But some parents just don't have or choose to take the time it requires to help their student get ahead in school. If every student had a supportive, nurturing home environment, all students would have a better chance of progressing at a rate appropriate to their grade level. However, that is not always the case, and is rarely the case in the classroom I'm teaching in right now.

As teachers, we can only control what happens to a student from 8:40-3:00 Monday through Friday. We have to make the best out of the limited time we have with them and make the largest impact possible in a short amount of time.