Today I read something that made me stop and think....


I was reading an article about what all teachers wish parents knew, and it said that (and this is loosely quoted) "the worst teachers give the best grades". I'm not sure that I agree with this for several reasons:


1. Teachers don't GIVE grades; students EARN them.


but that aside..the real part that bothered me was: "the WORST teachers".


2. I am not a teacher that is out to FAIL students. You see, I believe it's my JOB to push students to be successful. That doesn't mean that I give unrealistic grades. It means that I do everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in my power to make sure every students understands the concepts. It's called...wait for it.....DIFFERENTIATION!! I don't wake up and ask myself, "How many kiddos can I fail today?" I get up and ask,"How many can I make understand?" I think THAT is what truly seperates the WORST from the rest. Yes, I have had students not pass, but those are students who truly needed extra support outside the classroom and were not getting it at that moment. I have a nice "bell-curve", but I will have to say, it's heavy on the high side! I WANT my students to succeed, and if that takes me helping them redo a paper 3 or 4 times just so I can give them a 70, then so be it! That's MY JOB! You see, I know that everytime they "redo" it, they are learning over and over again. Hmmmm....so if I have more than half my students with an average of 80-90%, does that make me a bad teacher?


I don't think so...


I've always thought about it this way-the more students I have being successful, the better the teacher I am. Am I wrong??? Do I have to have students failing to mean I'm a good teacher because I'm pushing them way past their limits? Something to think about. Here is the link I read that caused me unneeded stress: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/06/living/teachers-want-to-tell-parents/index.html