Teaching stories: September 14

Disclaimer #1 - I’m not blaming anyone in today’s post. Disclaimer #2 - I am screaming a little in this post. SORRY! Disclaimer #3 - I’m ok and I’ll be fine and I haven’t lost hope. And…… How how how how how do we allow students to progress through our educational system and arrive in 6th grade reading at the 1st grade level? I’m not a proponent for retention. I AM A PROPONENT FOR GETTING STUDENTS THE SUPPORT THEY NEED AND EARLY INTERVENTION.
On Monday, I’ll add to my teaching schedule a reading intervention group - 5 students, three reading at the early 2nd grade level and two reading at the early 1st grade level. 4/5 with IEPs. 1 with dyslexia.
I will love these students. And, by God, I will work to nudge them along even though I desperately want to leaps-and-bounds them to higher reading levels.
I may be well-intentioned, creative, and dedicated. But, I’m ill-equipped and under-resourced for this unique situation.
And I’m sad. I’ve cried these past few nights thinking of children who are left behind.
This post is not a pity party. Truly. It is a genuine distress call about how We as a system, We as a whole, don’t get to every child. Children don’t fall through the cracks - the systemic inequities fracture the playing field and children get caught in the absence of educational justice. And at the end of the day, I know that, perhaps even without malice, I’ve played into this system of disparity. I’m complicit, too.
Disclaimer #4 - It was a full, sort-of rough week. I’m tired. I promise to focus more on the good than the hard spots. But I can’t tell a year of authentic teaching stories without these vignettes, too. I know you understand.
Love, Jen