Dig deeper to go further!

Tonight I made myself go out and run! It's so easy to come up with excuses, but not tonight! It's been a crazy two months, but I have to make myself get back to a routine of working out and running. My intent was to run about 2 miles, I just have to ease back into it, right? When I got to the 1 and half mile mark, my legs felt like rubber. Did I want to quit? Absolutely! However, I told myself, "Nardi, you have to dig deep and keep going! You can do it!" So I kept going! I hit the 2 mile mark! I kept going! I made myself dig deeper and go further! My goal of 2 miles turned into a 3 1/2 mile run! I felt great!

This caused me to think about teaching and my students! Don't we want this for our students, to dig deeper and go further? Of course we do! How do we ensure that? We, as teachers need to dig deeper to go further to take our STUDENTS further? Don't we want to be the best we can be so our students can be the best THEY can be?

While on my run, I was reminded of a situation that occurred with one of my students just this past week. This student is part of my tutoring group. With the FSAssessment next week, I had her take a computer "practice" FSAssessment. This particular student worked so hard, used all of the strategies I taught her during the year. She was nervous to click the "submit" button, but with her eyes tightly shut and her finger on the enter key, she pressed submit. She squealed with excitement as she read her score 90%!!!! YES!!! 90%!!! This is HUGE for this student! After the excitement, she sat down and stated, "My head hurt from all that thinking." I replied, "Yes, but look at the results!" Needless to say she was beaming, smiling from ear to ear!. That's what it is all about, teaching our students to dig deeper to go further!

This time of year I reflect on my teaching, what worked, what didn't work. I begin to search for (and research) other strategies, programs, books, workshops, etc. Consequently, I'm so excited to be part of our Aspiring Coaches Cohort next year which will begin with a four day training June 8th - 11th. This will give me the opportunity to enhance quality teacher instruction (including my own) at my school. Why do this? To dig deeper to go further in order to reach ALL of my students!

It's tough to learn new strategies and use them in the classroom with our students. We want to revert to what we know, what we feel comfortable with. Case in point, our fourth and fifth grade teachers implemented DBQs (Document Based Questioning). Let me tell you, it was TOUGH!!!! I wanted to close the book, put it away, and go back to what I know. But I didn't! We dug deep, pushed further than we ever have before! We didn't see the positive results until about the third unit! (Although we did see gradual improvement throughout the DBQ process). It took perseverance on the teacher's part AND the students' part. Now I have some students who can write a three page paper analyzing documents WITH citations! These are nine and ten year olds! I would like to say 100% are doing this, but I can't. However, I can say 100% of my students show growth in their reading and writing! How? By digging deeper to go further!

So, how do we dig deeper to go further? I can only share what I do and what has worked for me. First, I get to know my students! How do they learn? What excites them? The knowledge I gain about my students directs me to books, strategies, workshops, and trainings where I can discover new ideas that I can use with ALL of my students.

Yes, all of this takes time, but I have to dig deeper to go further in order to reach ALL of my students!

My Summer Reading List!