13 school days to go. 13 get-ups way before even dawn has cracked and the glorious summer months await us.
This year end leads itself perfectly to this post on end of year assessments. We are assessing left, right and centre to quantify teaching, learning, progress and our own assessing. It gives students experience of the process of exams, preparing their equipment and organising their time to juggle several subjects at once.
My advice to my classes is always to do their best. Just as I have done my best to teach, guide and support them this year, I expect that they try their hardest. This doesn't mean cramming or paying a tutor last minute to coach them through, it means to think sensibly about what they have learnt and how they could apply it to give their teacher a clear indication of where they need support or challenge.
There are, of course, students for whom my teaching, guidance and support didn't quite hit the spot. Maybe there were times that I could have differentiated better, taken into account more styles of learning or a wider range of resources, or maybe the student themselves could have just engaged with what I delivered. With these students in mind I had preconceptions when marking a certain set of assessments. Those I knew for a topic on sequences hadn't acted on my feedback or who definitely had more than one non-maths tab open on the computer lab lesson on the Golden Ratio. So as I marked and totalled their papers and saw some of the top marks in the group was I right to be shocked? Had my lesson upon lesson of pleads that they try their best actually materialised and their best was now being displayed? Why was I questioning their best through a suspicious teacher eye rather than viewing the evidence that was in front of me of clear understanding and carefully considering methods?
Student aspirations in Maths will stay as they are unless we celebrate the small victories and give credit where it is deserved. Choose a medium which suits your students. Is it a 'well done' postcard home, giving them student of the week or a simple thumbs up as you hand their paper back? Let's show students we recognise when they have tried their best and start harnessing the positive energy is creates.
Maybe the best is still yet to come?
This year end leads itself perfectly to this post on end of year assessments. We are assessing left, right and centre to quantify teaching, learning, progress and our own assessing. It gives students experience of the process of exams, preparing their equipment and organising their time to juggle several subjects at once.
My advice to my classes is always to do their best. Just as I have done my best to teach, guide and support them this year, I expect that they try their hardest. This doesn't mean cramming or paying a tutor last minute to coach them through, it means to think sensibly about what they have learnt and how they could apply it to give their teacher a clear indication of where they need support or challenge.
There are, of course, students for whom my teaching, guidance and support didn't quite hit the spot. Maybe there were times that I could have differentiated better, taken into account more styles of learning or a wider range of resources, or maybe the student themselves could have just engaged with what I delivered. With these students in mind I had preconceptions when marking a certain set of assessments. Those I knew for a topic on sequences hadn't acted on my feedback or who definitely had more than one non-maths tab open on the computer lab lesson on the Golden Ratio. So as I marked and totalled their papers and saw some of the top marks in the group was I right to be shocked? Had my lesson upon lesson of pleads that they try their best actually materialised and their best was now being displayed? Why was I questioning their best through a suspicious teacher eye rather than viewing the evidence that was in front of me of clear understanding and carefully considering methods?
Student aspirations in Maths will stay as they are unless we celebrate the small victories and give credit where it is deserved. Choose a medium which suits your students. Is it a 'well done' postcard home, giving them student of the week or a simple thumbs up as you hand their paper back? Let's show students we recognise when they have tried their best and start harnessing the positive energy is creates.
Maybe the best is still yet to come?