Teachers willing to go the extra mile

The average teacher puts in an extra 14 hours a week to get the job done, but you talk to any teacher and they will tell you the job is never done.

Some of those hours are before school, after school, evenings and weekends. And they will also tell you that some weeks take more than an extra 14 hours. Those weeks are preparing for assessments before reporting periods, report cards, preparing for parent conferences or planning for a special event or project. The list is endless. In fact, at one particular school, and it could be more, teachers prepare eight report cards, with scholastic reports, three weeks into each quarter to keep parents informed about their children’s progress.

Teachers are always looking for better ways to produce and improve performance from their students. They are grading assignments and assessments. Then, they reteach any skills their students may not have met with a level of proficiency. Next, they retest to ensure their students have met the desired outcome; however, here we are again, back at square one with teachers having to put in extra time to grade those assessments, develop a plan to reteach and retest. The faster that turnaround (grade, reteach and retest), the better chance, teachers believe, for improved learning and achievement.

Just when we thought we had this process nailed down, we have those students that completely bomb or ace the test. So, we have a wider spread of achievement that will take additional time and effort to meet those diverse individual needs. So, it really doesn’t matter what silver bullet we think we have, there are always the challenges of trying to meet individual needs of particular students. Those students become our special cases, to help get up to speed or enrich. Yet, I for one, always feel I come up short meeting the diversity of special student needs; and lest I forget the rest of my students and their needs!

Then there are those nights, after one of those days, and I am fried. I am not burning the midnight oil, much less the 10 o’clock oil. Papers are just not graded. In fact, unless I get some much needed down time and sleep, I am not going to be like Mr. Rogers with his soft-spoken, accepting and comforting demeanor.

Those kinds of days are maybe a Halloween party in the middle of the week, the first day it snows, a full moon, who knows? But the students don’t just come in, they bounce in, and I pull out all the stops to keep their attention, keep them motivated and focused. Then there are those days when I know why it’s crazy. A child was not administered medication, there was a time change, late buses or a fire drill. Sometimes I am amazed what we do get done. Some describe teaching like herding cats.

Yet, teachers get back in the saddle every day after spending extra time the night before, that early morning, or weekends getting those papers graded or planning. We know those extra hours are increasing our net profits of learning and achievement, demonstrated by test scores. Teachers are getting the work done and that is being recognized by more students continually scoring better on federally mandated tests. This past year the Mat-Su Borough School District had seven more schools meet adequate yearly progress and three the previous year. The 10 schools that did not still had improved subgroup scores. Our students are doing well and the number of students doing better is increasing.

I believe teachers, beyond the paper chase of lesson plans, preparing assessments, grading and recording grades, are connected to their students emotionally. They are aware that their attitude toward their students and the extra actions they take will pay dividends. Those dividends include improving learning and achievement for their students. Teachers know the more they pour into their students, the more improved performance their students will demonstrate.

The single-most influential criteria for improving learning and achievement in the classroom is highly qualified teachers. Our highly qualified teachers are putting in the extra work, going the extra mile, and it shows.

Michael Carson is a teacher in the Mat-Su Borough School District.