Today I played hooky with five other teachers. We are in the process of changing up our schedule at school to include an intervention period for the 15-20% of the students who are not "getting it," "making the cut," "understanding," etc... We made up committees and I chose to become a part of the school visits committee. I haven't had to go anywhere until today. Tomorrow is my birthday, so it is nice to have a 4 day work week, right?
Wrong.
We had to meet at the light rail station at SIX.AM. Six am. That's about 30 minutes earlier than I normally even leave my house on most days. I was offended that a school in the Springs expected us to be THERE by 7:15 am, when our bell doesn't even RING until 7:23!!!!! WTF!
Either way I pushed myself enough to wake up at 4:40 am, get dressed, and make it out the door by 5:50. Then pressed the gas enough to make it to Starbucks for a much needed cup of coffee and then the station by 6:13. Yes. I am a speed demon.
While I wasn't really expecting our meeting to be much, or even slightly enlightening for that matter, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it isn't just our school feeling lost in Tiers of intervention... but rather all of the schools who met up felt the same way. We spoke at length about all of the things that we have in place, all the time we are spending on these kids who "don't get it" and all the different programs that have been created for them without really ever coming to an agreement of how to streamline everything.
In the end, every kid is different. We talked in circles, learned a little bit about every program we offered, got some ideas, but in the end there wasn't really a right answer.
That's the tough thing about education. We come in contact with at least 150 students every day. Each one of those heads is a world. Each kid has a story, each kid has a strength. While it is true a minimal percentage don't want to even ben in school, there is a bigger percentage of kids that don't get it. Not because they are dumb, not because they don't want to, not because they are lazy, but because they need something we haven't quite figured out yet.
We don't have all the answers.
I didn't feel so alone, ineffective, all of a sudden. We are all in this together, some paddling in the boat on the same direction, and some paddling in the opposite way. Just like our kids, we all have different ideas of what is "Best," but what's best for one ISN'T necessarily best for all.
May the Lords of Education guide us in the way where we can help most.
