The Approach

To my students...

It's the week we have all come to mutually dread.  Testing week.  When you ask me questions about the purpose of these three hour long tests, I struggle to find an answer because I struggle with understanding the purpose of the tests myself.  I want each one of you to realize that your schooling experience is not about this one test.  These tests are one small moment in the grand scheme of life.  Yep.  I said it.  A teacher just said that.

So, you may be asking yourself, "Why even bother if it won't affect me?  It's just a small moment in time." As your teacher, that is the complete opposite attitude I want you to have. I want you to approach this test as you should approach every thing in life.

With effort.  With a good attitude.  And with pride.

Your dream is to be a professional athlete?  So what if a professional athlete never uses the quadratic formula.  But I bet they would tell you they approach every game with effort.  Every time.

Your dream is to be a doctor? So what if you never have to determine how the setting of a book affects the plot.  But I bet every good doctor would explain you must have a good attitude when working with a wide variety of patients.

Your dream is to produce music?  Maybe you won't be solving algebraic equations, but you will approach every song you write with pride.

The point is that you may not want to do a lot of things that come your way in life.  But successful people approach every obstacle with their best effort, a great attitude, and a sense of pride once they conquer the task.  I feel pride when I see you smile walking into the classroom.  I feel pride when I see you figure out a tough problem.  I feel pride when I see you perform a great solo at a concert.  I feel pride when I see you work as a team to win a basketball game.  And I know approached each one of those occurrences with a good attitude and your best effort.

I see so much potential in each and every one of you.  I have valued every laugh we have shared and every success we have celebrated.  Each one of you are capable of big things.  HUGE things.  You may not see the value in the content of this test, but I see value in the approach.  Those are the skills that you will take with you all your life.  Believe me, there have been many times I have not seen value in life events that have come may way (um... Art History class in college... sorry art history majors, just not my thing), but I learned that when you approach these events with a good attitude, you will shine.

When you leave for summer break, I hope you understand that it is not the test score I value, it's your character and your attitude.  These are the same traits that will bring you success in making your dreams come true.  And if you fail at something, these traits will push you to try again.

I know each and every one of you have the capability to conquer any obstacle, including a state test, with fierce pride.  Keep smiling, and enjoy every moment of this time in your life.  I will leave you with a popular quote that has always stuck with me.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important that facts.  It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.  It will make or break a company... a church... a home.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.  And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes."

Sincerely,
Mrs. Dwyer

Start With the Verb

You know you have officially become an "adult" when you begin to craft your first resume.  The resume is what sets you apart from others in the vast world of never-ending job applicants.  You scour the internet for the best verbs possible to make your resume stand out among the rest.  You begin to type, and when you think back on your schooling, these potential "achievements" came to mind:

• Filled out a plot diagram
• Summarized a nonfiction article
• Edited DOL sentences
• Wrote 178340 research papers
• Mastered math fact time tests
• Answered textbook questions

With these innovating tasks, you are sure to bounce off the paper and come alive to that potential job prospect.  Right?

WRONG.  

It takes more than recall, memorization, and acing mundane tasks in school to get a job in this current market.  We should start creating those skills within our learners in the school setting.  After doing a quick Google search on "resume verbs", I was confronted with pages upon pages of results.  Words such as collaborate, design, assist, manage, and facilitate were among the verbs included in the lists.  It makes sense to begin cultivating these skills in students as early as possible.  With the competitive market for jobs, our duty as educators is to best prepare students with the skill set necessary to succeed in their adult life.

I began to think about the connection between the verbs in the Common Core Standards and the verbs that stand out on resumes.  The Common Core is what drives and directs our curriculum content, so I was interested in discovering if any of the standards included some of these "resume verbs" that I came across when doing a brief search on the internet.  I chose to look solely at the 7th grade E/LA Common Core Standards, as I did not intend to begin a doctoral search on the matter.  Below is a chart of what I found:

Granted, I realize the Common Core Standards are generic guidelines, but I feel until we start demanding innovating guidelines, then we will continue to see generic results.  Unfortunately, I feel the verbs that have been chosen are verbs that are easy to quantify, and thus easy to test.  "Determining two or more central ideas", important nonetheless, will not stand out on a resume.  It's what we have students DO with those central ideas that make them stand apart from the crowd.  Understandably so, this is no easy task, but what would happen if we just tried to incorporate some more innovative and "resume-worthy" skills into our national/state standards?

If our nation really wants to do an overhaul on education, then we should start simple.  Start with the verb.