Students of the Month: May 2018
As the end of the school year approaches, I try to make sure that students who deserve to be recognized are recognized. Sometimes that means a note scribbled at the bottom of an assignment, but sometimes more formal acknowledgement is called for. Such is the case with each of these four students, all of whom have set themselves apart in their own way.
Trevor Poulson is the “typical” excellent student. He works hard, gets straight A’s, finishes his homework on time, yadda-yadda-yadda. In other words, he is the sort of guy you would expect to have been recognized at every awards ceremony all year. He should be one of those names that you hear whenever anyone is talking about the shining superstars of the school. In my mind, he is that. But Trevor doesn’t draw attention to himself. He just gets the job done without drama, and he doesn’t require a lot from his teachers. He knows if he needs help; he asks for the specific help he needs; and then he takes it upon himself to follow through. As a teacher, it’s easy to overlook him in a room full of 15-year-olds demanding so many different kinds of attention. Well, Trevor, today I thought you should get a little extra attention for an entire year’s worth of excellent work in Honors English. Thanks!
Annie Martineau is a naturally gifted student. Most of the stuff in Honors English comes easy for her, but that isn’t the reason I wanted to recognize her. The Honors classes tend to be stocked with students who have been raised in excellence. They understand how to “be good” in a classroom. They are quiet (sometimes chillingly so), but they are often risk-averse, meaning they don’t dare to suggest responses that might not be “the right answer.” This can be frustrating when I’m trying to foster a discussion about a literary passage, and that is always when I can depend on Annie. She was never afraid to participate. Unlike certain classmates who have Myles to go before they achieve enlightenment, Annie’s participation was always polite and appropriate for the setting, but she was never afraid to offer her ideas. So, Annie, for your fearlessness, I recognize and thank you!
Samantha Newey is a quiet student, and because of that she was hard for me to figure out. She always performed well enough to fly under my radar, but as the year went on, I had a sense that she could have been doing much better than she was. The old saying is to “leave well enough alone,” but now I know that Sammy is better than “well enough.” Before my students took the end-of-year test as 9th graders, I was looking over their 8th grade results, and I was surprised at Sammy’s score because it seemed lower than it should have been. I’d been reading her essays and scoring her tests all year, and it just seemed to me that she could do better. So I challenged her to do that. Guess what? She did it. Now, Sammy, we have the evidence of your ability, so our expectations are going up! And as you head off to high school, I am sure you will prove to others, as you showed me, that you can live up to them! Thanks!
Kyler Hardy is the type of student who makes me craziest. He is naturally gifted, so school doesn’t challenge him all that much, but during the first couple terms, he could follow the merest distraction down a rabbit hole that would set my small 8th period class in an uproar. And somehow he’d still get a decent grade. Academically, when he puts his mind to it, he is an A-student, and I have noticed this semester that he is putting his mind to it a bit more often: Fewer distractions, more good work, more willingness to participate with the class rather than in spite of it. This is a sign of maturity that will serve him well in the future, but it is not the sort of thing we usually recognize at events like this. Well, Kyler, I am recognizing it in you and thanking you for all your improvements in my class this year. As the poem goes, “You’ll be a man, my son!”
Trevor Poulson is the “typical” excellent student. He works hard, gets straight A’s, finishes his homework on time, yadda-yadda-yadda. In other words, he is the sort of guy you would expect to have been recognized at every awards ceremony all year. He should be one of those names that you hear whenever anyone is talking about the shining superstars of the school. In my mind, he is that. But Trevor doesn’t draw attention to himself. He just gets the job done without drama, and he doesn’t require a lot from his teachers. He knows if he needs help; he asks for the specific help he needs; and then he takes it upon himself to follow through. As a teacher, it’s easy to overlook him in a room full of 15-year-olds demanding so many different kinds of attention. Well, Trevor, today I thought you should get a little extra attention for an entire year’s worth of excellent work in Honors English. Thanks!
Annie Martineau is a naturally gifted student. Most of the stuff in Honors English comes easy for her, but that isn’t the reason I wanted to recognize her. The Honors classes tend to be stocked with students who have been raised in excellence. They understand how to “be good” in a classroom. They are quiet (sometimes chillingly so), but they are often risk-averse, meaning they don’t dare to suggest responses that might not be “the right answer.” This can be frustrating when I’m trying to foster a discussion about a literary passage, and that is always when I can depend on Annie. She was never afraid to participate. Unlike certain classmates who have Myles to go before they achieve enlightenment, Annie’s participation was always polite and appropriate for the setting, but she was never afraid to offer her ideas. So, Annie, for your fearlessness, I recognize and thank you!
Samantha Newey is a quiet student, and because of that she was hard for me to figure out. She always performed well enough to fly under my radar, but as the year went on, I had a sense that she could have been doing much better than she was. The old saying is to “leave well enough alone,” but now I know that Sammy is better than “well enough.” Before my students took the end-of-year test as 9th graders, I was looking over their 8th grade results, and I was surprised at Sammy’s score because it seemed lower than it should have been. I’d been reading her essays and scoring her tests all year, and it just seemed to me that she could do better. So I challenged her to do that. Guess what? She did it. Now, Sammy, we have the evidence of your ability, so our expectations are going up! And as you head off to high school, I am sure you will prove to others, as you showed me, that you can live up to them! Thanks!
Kyler Hardy is the type of student who makes me craziest. He is naturally gifted, so school doesn’t challenge him all that much, but during the first couple terms, he could follow the merest distraction down a rabbit hole that would set my small 8th period class in an uproar. And somehow he’d still get a decent grade. Academically, when he puts his mind to it, he is an A-student, and I have noticed this semester that he is putting his mind to it a bit more often: Fewer distractions, more good work, more willingness to participate with the class rather than in spite of it. This is a sign of maturity that will serve him well in the future, but it is not the sort of thing we usually recognize at events like this. Well, Kyler, I am recognizing it in you and thanking you for all your improvements in my class this year. As the poem goes, “You’ll be a man, my son!”
posted by MRT at 7:30 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home