Have You Asked For Parent Feedback - You Should, Even If It Hurts...

I click on the link nervously, not sure that I really want to read what I am about to see, and yet I must if I want to continue being a reflective teacher that realizes that she still has a lot to learn.  What has sent my palms into such a clammy mess?  Results from my end of the year parent survey....  Something I have forced myself to do the last two years, all in the name of bettering myself.

So why the trepidation?  Well, even though most parents don't take issue with how I teach, or we iron things out along the way, sending someone an anonymous survey to fill out makes anyone nervous.  Particularly when those someones are people who have seen the direct result of your teaching on their child for a whole year.  Particularly when those someones speak to other someones who may just have a child going into 5th grade.  Particularly when those someones really have a right to tell you exactly how they feel because their kid is involved, which means they are involved.

And yet it took me 2 years to get to that point.  It took me that long to want to hear what parents truly had to say.  It took me 2 years to have enough confidence to be able to really listen without getting offended, without taking it like a personal attack.  Without feeling they were automatically in the wrong if they didn't love everything I had done.

So now it is with gratitude, and of course still trepidation that I read the answers they provide.  I know I do school differently than most of them are used to.  I know my philosophy sometimes stands in a stark contrast to those of my amazing team members.  I know this 5th grade experience may be vastly different than that of 6th grade.  So I ask the tough questions and then hold my breath.  I ask how I can improve, what I should focus on next year,  whether I did a good enough job, because I truly do want to hear the answers.  I truly do want the truth so that I can grow.  There are always answers that go straight to my heart, those that make me reflect and rething, refine and reconsider.  And I am thankful for that.

Asking for feedback is never easy.  Listening to the feedback is even harder, and yet, I don't look back.  I urge others to do the same; ask the questions and then really really listen to those answers.  Don't ask because you feel you have to, ask because you want to grow.  Even if it hurts and stings.  Even if it is not what you had hoped to hear.  We are not perfect, or at least I am not.  I still have a lot of growing to do.

PS:  My parent survey changed a lot this year thanks to help from Kaitlyn Gentry who was kind enough to share her end of year survey with me.

26 Kids and Counting...

Sometimes I feel like the Duggars.  You know, that super huge family on TLC that keeps having children, just happy with whatever they get.  I am kind of like that except these are not my natural children, but "my kids," those students I adopt every year since they are part of my classroom.  And just like a proud parent, I welcome them all, ever searching for their strengths, acknowledging their weaknesses and going through life together; one day at a time.

You see, that is what teachers do.  Those kids become our kids, or at least they do for me.  And so today when I got wind that an old student of mine was coming back and was being placed in the other 5th grade room, I asked for him in my room.  I am in a position this year where I teach a 4/5 combination class and therefore have quite a few of my old students.  He therefore belongs with me, someone who already knows his strengths and also what he needs help with the most.  More importantly in this situation, stability will aslo be a great benefit.  So although my class keeps expanding, so does my hopes for it.  Yes, one more student means more work, but it also means more learning opportunities, more friendships, more successes, and more happiness.  So when I waddle my kids down the hallway and I look back at them, we look like the never ending line of students and that is alright with me.

And yet, I wouldn't trade my kids for anything, not even a smaller class size or an "easier" day.  As our class sizes grow (I may be getting another student as well), I hope that my kids are not taken away from me.  Even though we have only spent a week together, I am connecting and connected.  I want these students to trust me, trust each other, and trust themselves.  I want them to know that we are on a journey together and that none of them are expandable.

So while some teachers may joke that they are going to retire as class sizes increase or lament the prep time they just lost because they had to help with a student, me; I don't mind it.  It means that I am with my students, helping them learn, which is, after all, my job.  The joke in my family is that I am like the Statue of Liberty sometimes, always beckoning lost souls to enter and find a home.  And perhaps it is true, maybe I do connect well with students, maybe I just happen to catch them at just the right time in their life.  Whatever the reason or circumstance; something clicks and more often than not, we become a family.  I believe in all of the kids I am trusted with and I believe more importantly theat they have tremendous potential, whether they want to believe it or not.  So go ahead, send me another student or two.  I promise to work hard to make them feel like one of my kids, to make them learn, to make them grow.  Because that is what teachers do.