"teaching is the greatest act of optimism." - colleen wilcox

i just received ohio achievement test scores for my kids today. (not kate and ian. i'm referring to the 15 LD and CD sweeties on my case load for the past year.)

wow. and i mean, wow. i am so proud of them.

math scores are incredibly important to our district and districts all over ohio. in the waverly city school district, students with disabilities are referred to as a subgroup, and our district's rating by the state is determined in part by how well this particular subgroup performs on the OAT.

long story short...13 of my 15 students passed the 8th grade math OAT. that's an 87%passage rate for my kids with disabilities.

oh yeah, baby!

after testing, i told anyone who would listen how hard my kids worked on the OAT. they are granted extended time -up to 6 hours- to complete a test that the rest of the students take in 2 and a half hours.) on the first two days of testing, my beautiful children worked from 8:30 in the morning until almost 2:00. we took breaks. we ate snacks. we walked and stretched and then refocused. i gave them pep talks and hugs and constant praise. they could have given up. they could have said they were just too tired and thrown any old answer down. but they didn't.

on that last day of testing, i loved them for what they had done. they had persevered.

and while some of our other test scores may not show it, their math scores offer tangible proof to what i already knew:

given the opportunity and the encouragement to be confident, these children can and do succeed. do they need a little nudge? sure. do they get grumpy and exasperated? absolutely. does their teacher get grumpy and exasperated? oh my...yes.

bottom line, i love those darn kids. and i love my job.

thanks God.