Sorry it's been awhile. There have been so many days where I've thought about writing but with the end of the school year and applying like a mad woman for jobs, it has been one of the last things on my to-do list.
I know many of you have been praying for my student Tara so I will give a quick update on her.
She continues to be cutting herself. This week it was on her stomach. Ouch. She is open with me about doing it which I am glad about but wish I could do more to help. She did tell her sister about being raped and her sister took her to get tested for STDs. Personally, I think she needs some serious counseling but I'm not her guardian. Many days I feel lost with what to do to help her. I try to just listen and pray.
As many of you know, this has been a VERY rough year for me - especially being my first full year of teaching. Today I received a huge affirmation that made my month/year.
When I came to this school I was told that the state test scores were very low. The school is considered a Title 1 school which means many of the students are below grade level and struggle to learn. They were hiring a new Language Arts teacher this year because they wanted to improve state test scores. One of the main school goals this year was to improve writing skills. Last year, my 8th grade students did pretty poorly on the state test. Many did not pass the writing and a lot got a 1 or 2 (scale of 6). We just received our test scores for this year and 100% of my 8th graders got a 4 or better on the writing portion of the test. They also got the highest passing percentage for the Language Arts portion (76%). The fact that ALL MY STUDENTS passed the writing and improved the scores a ton was such a huge affirmation that I can indeed teach. I'm smiling ear to ear!!!!
Teach
