Test Anxiety - Not Just for Kids

I am going to attempt share how I want you to feel supported and not to worry about the upcoming KPREP test, but first, I have to express how grateful I feel that I even need to have this discussion with you.  Some schools do not have the sense of urgency that is a major part of the culture here.  I have learned that you care about not just what happens in your class, but with the school as a whole.  You want our students to perform well.  You take pride in our scores and how our school is seen in the district and state.  That is special.  If this culture is all you have known, you may not realize that having that attitude is not necessarily the norm. 

In some schools I have been in with demographics similar to ours, the prevailing culture is one of "Nurturing Students to Failure."  These schools have the "Bless their Hearts" mentality directed at their population instead of what I see at Paint Lick.  Our students may come to us with many obstacles in their paths to proficiency, but our teachers do not allow those obstacles to turn into barriers.  You do not quit or ever give up on a child. 

Check out Ms. Burton here taking advantage of her intervention time 2 days before Spring Break.  I know it would be tempting to use this time to catch up with her paperwork or planning, but she is focused on her objective and is using every possible second to push her students to be the best they can be.

I am so so glad you all are so focused on our students and their mastery of content, but when it comes to the test, don't focus on the elements you can't control and tie your self worth to what students do in one 90 minute session.  Focus on the process. You decide what kind of teacher you want to be each day.  At the end of the day if you have been true to yourself, giving all of your efforts to your goal, rest in the knowledge that you have succeeded.  

Remember, you are the "man" in the arena:

(I can't use this speech excerpt from Teddy Roosevelt enough). Roosevelt believed that a man should not be judged by what he achieved, but by what he did. The process was what mattered.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Continue to "dare greatly" and breathe.  You got this.  Enjoy your spring break! You deserve it!