Day 305- Evaluation

I handed out my first set of report cards today.  Put another milestone into the books!  I thought a lot about the grades I gave, and I asked my students to reflect on a few different things in their warm-ups at the end of the quarter.  We also looked at class averages and set goals for this quarter.  I had students write their own goals accompanied by carefully constructed responses about how they plan to reach these goals.  I am optimistic for this new quarter and hope that at least some of them will take all of this to heart and really push to do better.  However, as my Tim Gunn bobblehead so aptly says, "I can't want you (them) to succeed more than you (they) do!"  At the very least, all of this work I have put in should come in handy for parent teachers conferences this week (here's the paper where your child wrote that he should get a "C" for effort because he didn't try as hard as he could have and had some late work... busted).

I received my first official teacher "report card" today too.  I'm not sure how appropriate it would be to spill all of the details of my evaluation conversation with an administrator, so I'll just say this. 

It could not have gone any better. 

While I am confident that I am working hard and doing my absolute best (no matter what I heard today), this feedback was quite nice to get.  I'm the girl who used to clean her bedroom for a grade, for heaven's sake!  This should come as no surprise.  It is so satisfying to have validation that I'm doing alright.  In addition to that, it is absolutely fabulous to work at a job where the things I like best about myself are the things that are valued the most. 

I might just have to send my parents a little package with a copy of my report card and a school picture.  Will I ever be too old for that?  Perhaps tomorrow I'll clean something, and Tom can give me a grade.  Hmm... probably not.  Now I'm stretching.

Thank you, evaluation, you made my day.

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