Category: #TeacherMom

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School Test Scores Won’t Tell You the Important Things

We moved to a new area about a year ago. We relocated to a rural farming community of about 2,700 people. For the sake of this blog post, let’s call the town Smallville. In this community, there is one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school, and that encompasses the entire school district. 

During our period of searching for homes, I also spent time researching schools in each town and area that we were considering moving to. Of all the cities we possibly could have chosen, Smallville was last on my list because the school rankings for the district were… well… not great. In fact, they were some of the lowest. 

But lo and behold, we ended up in Smallville. With my oldest starting kindergarten just three months after moving there, I was in constant worry about what we should do for school. Should we keep her at Smallville Elementary or drive her to one of the surrounding town’s schools each day? Every passing day throughout the summer it was constantly on my mind. 

We ultimately decided to keep her at Smallville Elementary at least for her first year of school, see how the year would go, and then move her to a new school for first grade if needed. 

After her first full year of school, I was absolutely humbled. Sure, the school rankings on the Idaho State Department of Education website weren’t favorable for Smallville by any means. But do you know what the website doesn’t tell you? 

It doesn’t tell you about the principal that is outside each and every morning and afternoon, no matter the weather, helping the teachers manage school drop-off and pick-up lines. 

It doesn’t tell you about the kindergarten teachers and how every single one of them loves their students something fierce and will do anything to help the students succeed. 

It doesn’t tell you about the first-grade teachers organizing a fundraiser all on their own to help raise money for a field trip. 

The website doesn’t ever mention the school janitor that helps your daughter clean up her spilled lunch box off the floor of the cafeteria and then comforts her when she is in tears from embarrassment. 

There aren’t stats for what a community bonding experience it is to attend a high school basketball game and have everyone come together for the evening, catch up, and rally together to cheer our athletes on to victory. 

Never once did the website mentions how the superintendent, principal, and teacher would bend over backward when you make the difficult decision to pull your child from school temporarily and give distance learning a try. 

It doesn’t tell you about the text your child’s teacher will send you in the middle of the school day, “I noticed your child was struggling with a specific math skill, I sent home some classroom manipulatives she can work with this week to help her.” – Classroom manipulatives that the teacher surely purchased herself. 

It doesn’t tell you the important parts of the school. 

The website can show statistics of test scores all day long, but what it can never show you is what an incredible community you gain in any one specific school, or in our case, one specific school district. 

Going to school is based on academics, but that’s not our only goal at the end of their 12+ years in those hallways and classrooms. The goal is to raise good humans that know how to problem solve, interact with others, be a friend, have empathy, and more. 

I’m grateful for our little Smallville school district and I’m even more grateful that we didn’t try to send our child away from such a community-driven school, regardless of what the test scores said. 

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Lessons Learned During Distance Learning

Last winter my daughter did a short stint of “distance learning” during her year as a kindergartener. You can read more about our experience here. 

Now that we’re a few months out from this experience, here are some interesting things I’ve learned. 

Just because one on one attention is really great for most students doesn’t mean it’s best for all students. 

This threw me off because when you have a struggling student, what’s the first line of defense usually? One-on-one learning. Pulling them aside and working with the student individually to help them understand the concept. So in my mind, I figured, my daughter will receive 1:1 attention and learning while I’m home with her, she is going to excel! It’ll give her a boost academically! And I was so wrong. Her test scores plummeted. Her reading regressed. And as soon as she was back in school? Her test scores shot up. Her reading improved greatly. Her math skills took a huge leap in what she was able to do. It wasn’t for lack of teaching, she basically had a private tutor every day for several hours at home! 

Now I know there are so many other factors to consider, this would never stand up as a true experiment for so many reasons. However, with mom and teacher intuition included, I know deep down that being back in a big classroom with the energy of her classmates and teachers around her, she truly learned better. I’m sure pulling her aside to work one on one with certain concepts would work for her in some situations! But overall, her brain wasn’t built to sit at the kitchen table with one teacher. Her brain also wasn’t built to work independently out of a workbook. Her brain is built to move and see and interact while she learns.

It gave me a new perspective on those kids in similar situations that ended up doing school from home during the year or two (ish) of covid. I knew it was hard for them, but this gave me a deeper understanding and my heart went out to them. 

Public schools do not get enough credit.

Okay, I already knew this. No one needed to tell me. But the way our principal and my daughter’s teacher stepped up and into action when I was a parent reaching out for support was absolutely incredible. Within an hour or two of sending the email to both the principal and the teacher letting them know our situation and asking for the best way to move forward, they already had a game plan made up and prepared for us. Each week they would both check in to see how we were doing and would ask if we needed any more support or help during our time at home. Public schools can get a bad rap for not caring or supporting, and I’m sure in some cases that is true. But I am extremely grateful we’ve lucked out and ended up with amazing teachers and administration. 

The bottom line is this: all children learn in their own way and teachers are amazing. It’s something we all know, but sometimes having a good reminder is really nice. 

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“I’m So Proud of Myself”

I try really hard not to tell my kids I’m proud of them. 

I know that sentence was really harsh, but I have your attention now, right? 

I try not to tell my kids I’m proud of them, but instead rephrase it by saying, “Are you proud of yourself?” or, “You should be very proud of yourself!” 

I am proud of them, I really am! But their own pride in themselves will carry them much further than my being proud of them ever will. 

It’s not something I do 100% of the time, I still find myself exclaiming, “I am so proud of you!” often. But I throw in enough “You should be proud of yourself” to balance it. 

At school this week, my kindergartener was awarded as a “red cape runner” for having the most improved testing scores for the class that month. She, along with others from the school, was given a red cape and they all ran through the hallways with We Are the Champions blasting over the speakers. It was a way to celebrate their hard work and dedication, and it was amazing as a parent to have the chance to watch these children, just beaming with pride, run through the hallways. 

Afterward, when I had the chance to talk to my daughter, I told her that she did amazing and we were so happy we could come to watch her. She responded with, 

“Mom, I am SO proud of myself right now!” 

My eyes instantly filled with tears. It was the first time she had told me she was proud of herself without any prompting from me. And for that, I was extremely proud of her. 

Her own self-pride will carry her further in school than any praise I can give her. It will also drive an intrinsic motivation in her school work, to see that if and when she puts in the time and dedication, she can and will achieve great things, and she can do it to be proud of herself, not just to make me proud. 

One proud little Red Cape Runner

Featured Image by Kayla Wright

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Teacher Appreciation Week: Gift Ideas That Teachers Really Want

It’s that time of the year again, teacher appreciation week! You know, the one where they receive a new mug and countless candies that they will never finish? 

We all know that it’s well-meaning and so, so kind of parents and community members to think of teachers! But here is a little guidance (and a free printable!) that might help with gift-giving ideas this teacher appreciation week. 

Courtney Jones (@support_a_teach) on Twitter asked teachers what they really want for teacher appreciation week, it’s interesting to hear what they have to say. The most common answers I saw were handwritten notes from students or parents, gift cards, and classroom supplies. 

Another great way to figure out what teachers want is… to ask! Ask them directly what they want. It can be a little daunting as both the one asking and the one answering, but there are clever ways you can get around this. 

  • If your student is old enough, have them quiz their teacher on favorite drinks, stores, needed classroom supplies, etc.! It’ll be fun detective work for them and it’s a great bonding experience for them. 
  • If your student can write, have them write a little quiz for their teacher to take and send back. If they can’t write yet, write or type it out yourself and send it to school with your student. 
  • Email or text the teacher! This gives them time to think it over and respond. 

When all else fails or resources are thin, taking some time out of your day to write a little note or have your child draw a picture will be more than enough. 

Here is a week of gift ideas with printables you can send with your student to school each day: 

Monday: Target Gift Card: “Thank you for keeping me on TARGET this school year”

Tuesday: Fresh Flowers “Thank you for helping me BLOOM”

Wednesday: Dry Erase Markers “You really help us hit the MARK”

Thursday: Hand Soap “HANDS DOWN the best teacher around”

Friday: Clorox Wipes “You really help us SHINE”

You can send one for each day of the week or just one gift for the whole week. Any and all effort put in will be noticed and appreciated by teachers. 

Printables below are available for FREE download:

Teacher-AppreciationDownload
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Where We Draw the Line With Extracurriculars

My oldest is 5 years old and we are already deep in the trenches of managing extracurriculars. It’s mind-boggling that we would even be at this phase of life already when she’s only in kindergarten. Yet she comes home roughly every six weeks with a new flyer from our Recreation District about soccer signs up, t-ball the next time, and basketball the month after. And the discussion between friends always starts at school, “Are you playing soccer this year? I am, I want you to be on my team!”

While I am very impressed with our Rec District and happy they are providing these opportunities for our community, I’m also an overwhelmed parent that can’t keep up with practices and games and everything else that comes with each sport! So, we don’t. 

When do we finally call it quits? 

Well, there are a lot of factors to consider. I love Mary’s perspective on this topic. I’d also like to add that we live in a very small community and participating in extracurriculars and spending Saturdays on the soccer fields is a huge community event where we all know one another and have time to socialize. This factor plays in when making a decision! 

But my biggest selling point for this decision-making process is time for free play. Are my kids coming home from school, rushing to change clothes and eat a snack, just to get back in the car and head to soccer practice? Once in a while, that’s fine! One night a week we live this way so we can make it to a tumbling class, and it’s an overall benefit to our whole family. But the rest of the week they come home, have some downtime by themselves or with screens, and then spend the rest of the evening deep in play, sometimes inside, sometimes outside. Sometimes we involve friends and neighbors, sometimes we don’t! 

But play is the real work of childhood, not basketball. Not choir practice. So when all of these extracurricular activities start interfering with playtime, that’s where and when the line is drawn in our family. 

It’s always a tricky road to navigate, though! How do you decide which extracurriculars and how many your child can and will be involved in? 

Other helpful posts:

Are Extra Curriculars Helping or Harming?
Thoughts On Kid’s Extracurriculars
Why You Shouldn’t Feel Bad About Canceling Extracurriculars #TeacherMom
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Parents Tips For Parent-Teacher Conference Season

Parent Teacher Conference season is quickly approaching along with the end of the school year, for some schools. If this doesn’t apply to you, give this article a read and then save it for next fall when you’ll inevitably want to read it again.

My first piece of advice for you is to identify if your school does Parent Teacher Conferences or if they do Student-Led Conferences. These two different types of conferences can sometimes look vastly different, so knowing what to expect going in is helpful.

An article that is helpful for Parent Teacher Conferences:

Questions To Ask At Parent-Teacher Conferences

Articles that are helpful for Student Led Conferences:

5 Signs of 21st Century Teaching to Watch For During Conferences #TeacherMom
23 Guiding Questions to Make Student-Led Conferences More Informative
Student-Led Conferences: Practical Guide & Resources
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Dear Future Teacher Me

Dear Future Teacher Me, 

I know it’s been a few years since you graduated with your teaching degree and received your teaching license (OKAY it’s been more than a few.) But someday you’ll find yourself back in the classroom teaching again when it feels suitable for your family. Someday you will walk through those doors to set up your own classroom instead of walking your own to theirs. 

And someday when that day comes, there are things you need to remember to carry with you that you learned during your time as a parent in the school setting instead of a teacher. 

Remember that all you ever want is what’s best for your kids. So when it feels like a parent won’t get off your back about something, remember that really all they want is what’s best for their child. 

Remember that you’re doing the best you can to support your children’s teachers, but sometimes it’s hard to be as supportive as possible because your life is busy and there’s a lot going on. So someday when you feel like you’re not getting enough support in your classroom, remember that these parents have multiple children and jobs and responsibilities. Their time to volunteer may not be right now. 

Remember that every day you send your children to school and worry immensely about their safety, but also place a lot of trust in the teachers and staff of the school to do everything they can to keep them safe. Remember this, because someday parents will be sending their kids to you and expecting the same. 

Remember that you think so highly of your kid’s teachers and are constantly impressed by what they are able to create and do in their classrooms and that someday, parents will think the same of you. 

Remember that you often forget to convey your gratitude and appreciation for your kid’s teachers and that parents will forget just the same. But that doesn’t mean the gratitude and appreciation aren’t there. 

Most of all, remember that you love your own kids, but you’ll also love your students like they are your own kids, too. Someday, you’ll make a great teacher. You may not have been teaching in a classroom for the last several years, but you’ve done your fair share of teaching with the children in your home, and that experience will carry over to your classroom someday, too. 

You’ve got this.