The Reason I Teach

At the end of every quarter, I have the students clean everything out of their binders and put it into their portfolio. I also have them pick one piece of evidence from the quarter that they are most proud of for any reason. They have to write a paragraph about that evidence, staple it to the evidence and turn it in. I truly love reading their reflections. It shows the growth that they made and the changes that I need to make as teacher.

Here are a few lines from the reflections from students:

• "I choose my story...I'm usually not a writing person. So that's a real big writing step." -NW
  
• "I'm just surprised that I did it. So I am just proud of myself by doing this work." -QI
  
• "I am happy because I never thought I would accomplish this assignment but I did!" -PT
• "I am proud of my story because I do not know how to write a story...This is the first story that I finished and it was a good story." -LB
• "I also felt good about writing a little story of my own." -CB
• "I am proud of my story...I am proud because I let out all my brain." -AE
• "I am very proud of my hundred questions. It took me a while to figure at what I wanted them to be. When I did, it all clicked. I don't have all the answers but that's the beauty of it." -NB
• "I'm proud of this story because this the first time I ever wrote a story." -AR

It almost brings a tear to my eye.