For The Win part 1

 For the sake of this post, to preserve student anonymity while still celebrating the things that bring me joy I will refer to all as Student.  These are not all the same students, but this just makes it easier for me and keeps their privacy. 

For the last 2 weeks I have been keeping a journey of the daily little wins.  I only put positives in this notebook.  When a day is hard I look back at the notebook as a reminder of the wins of life. Here are the "Wins" for the last 2 weeks of a high school teacher. 

• Student came to me and asked if I could help them get organized, even though I'm not their teacher any more. 
• Student advocated for support in organization, because they "couldn't do it alone". Student proceeded to provide me their entire plan based on the structure we made the week before and went over the progress!
• Student made entire class excited about Sin and Cos waves-anyone who can make my students excited about Algebra 2 brings me great joy!!!
• Student who struggles to ever write anything for classes, came in on their non-house day to work with a teacher and completed an essay and a 2nd assignment
• Student opened up to me and we made a plan to make it better. 
• Student(s) excited about their college plans next year. 
• Student got a scholarship they worked really hard for. 
• Got a lovely thank you note, from a former student headed to college to be a teacher. - They will be a great at it. 
• Student completed 2 math assignments with me.
• Student(s) hitting magic number of assessments so they will pass Alg 2 this year. 
• Co-teacher supporting using this semester's learning to improve 1st semester grades for a student. 
• Colleagues bringing kids in after school to help students be successful. 
• Student advocating independently, and effectively and showing they are really ready for college. 
• Student acknowledging their weakness and asking for support to fill in gaps.
• Student asking for math to be explained a different way and showing up for EVERY SINGLE TUTORIAL!
• Seeing so many students access and appreciate paper copies after being stuck online all year. 
• Having a union meeting were we felt united for the first time this school year. 
• Signing my contract for next fall!
• Having life conversations with students who will soon go off into the real world. 
• Positive final evaluation conversation.
• Support from admin to take on a student teacher next year. 
• Several days of sunshine and warm weather and walks with my hubby at the end of the day

I will post again in a few weeks. Focusing on the positive has made the last 2 weeks much better and more enjoyable. 

Signing off for now

-C