TTCTW Chapter 9
I remember during my elementary Sunday School years, one of my Sunday School teachers said it wasn’t the building that made the church, it was the people. This is also true of schools. The people in them make all the difference. At the beginning of the chapter, a beginning teacher was describing two high schools in which she had experience. Both schools were very different. The school I currently teach in has bits and pieces from both schools the first year teacher mentioned. I have been in the same school ten of the past twelve years I have taught. My teammates and I have discussed the fact that we would rather drive further to get to our school than to transfer to a closer school and end up with an administration or team we didn’t like. After continuing to read, I began to question, especially when reading page 345 that some teachers “assume and behave as if high achievement just wouldn’t be normal at their school.” Although I do have high expectations for my students, I do sometimes feel it’s “normal” if my students aren’t as high as kids from other schools. I need to, as mentioned on 357, “concentrate less on what students are lacking and more on what instruction can press all students to achieve.” I need to “emphasize and model …the hard work and persistence it takes to succeed.”
