100% Effort

I handed back the first math test of the year to my students about 2 weeks ago.  Overall the grades were pretty good, but that isn't what made me happy.  What made me happy was how many of my students had improved from the pretest to the posttest.  AND, most of them had improved significantly!

However, as I was sitting in my room reflecting on their performance, one of my students came into the room and looked very unhappy.  I was concerned, so I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "I got a B on my test, and Bs are not ok".  While on one hand I was happy because she wanted a better grade, but on the other, I was upset at the fact that she thought Bs were not ok.  So I prodded her for some more information; I said, "Why is a B a bad score? Didn't you work your hardest on this test and study your hardest for it?" She said that she had, but that "Bs are what dumb people get".  This last comment caught me WAY off guard.  

I have always preached EFFORT to them.  "Give me 100% effort all the time, and I will give you 100% effort all the time.  If we both do this, then YOU will learn a ton this year, and will become a better student and person."  I thought that this was sinking in, but I guess there are a few that I still need to reel in.

I told her that a B was just fine as long as she worked her hardest and truly gave it everything that she had.  I also said that there were a few things that she could learn from this experience.  She didn't know what she could learn from it.  So we spent a minute discussing what she could do differently/better in preparation for her next test.

Even if my student didn't learn anything from this experience ,(although I suspect that she did, she just didn't want to say so) I did. I learned that I need to continue to preach to them that effort is the key to success, and that great things will come to you (them) when you give it your all.

Until Next Time,

Mr. Ryan