The Halfway Point

It has already been two terms since I began my inquiry into improving achievement for my low readers by focusing on sounds and word parts. Over the past two terms I have seen my students gain huge confidence to study words and explore them. This confidence will hopefully lead to my students gaining the skills to understand and decode unknown words. Here is a reflection on my inquiry as I have now reached the halfway point.

Reality check

Tonight I left my classroom with a greater burden on my heart for my students than I have ever had before. It was teacher/parent interviews, a time to share student mid-year reports. After many discussions with whanau throughout the day, sharing their child's successes, goals and needs, it was nearing the end of the evening. I then had a parent come into my class; a softy, kind spoken man. After showing him his daughters report he displayed a complete sense of helplessness and emotional burden in regards to her position against National Standards. It was hard to see a dad feeling so helpless towards what he could do to help his daughter. It was at this moment that I was reminded and even assured more of the reason why I devote so much of my life to teaching. Now being a dad made it even more real to me the true reality of what my student needs are and how important it is for me to do the absolute best teaching I can. The majority of my students this year a well below the National Standard, so it has been a challenging beginning to the year understand their levels and the progress that they need to make. But from this it has given me more motivation to try new things, keep focused and understand the needs to my learners better. I now look forward to the rest of the year and what this new motivation will bring, with a hope that I can make a significant difference in each of my students lives.

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