Recent Graduates 101

How will you know if the objectives have been reached and the students have learned?

This is one of the questions I’ll be asked this week as part of my professional evaluation for continuing employment.  Think about this.  How do you measure success in your profession?

Did the corn you planted come up and the market allow you to make some money on the harvest?

Was your customer able to drive away in the car you repaired?

Did your patient recover?  Your client receive a fair judgment?  The diners enjoy a good meal?

My answer to that question about my success as a teacher has always been a delayed reaction.  Sure, my students can pass quizzes and tests, write well-constructed essays, intelligently analyze a piece of literature.  Now.  When they’re in my class.  They meet the objectives for our curriculum.  But does that really prove they’ve learned what I’m hoping to teach them?

Not really.  For me, those are indicators that these kids are paying attention, reading the material, experimenting with the techniques I’m teaching them, testing their intellects against one another and me.  I hope I’m teaching them a bit more than that, however.

My objectives include helping my students understand that they are learners, that they have the tools necessary to succeed in whatever they try, or at least to learn from the challenges they accept whether or not they are successful.  I hope they learn to manage their time since most of them are busy in so many extra-curricular activities, both for school and in their community.  I’m forever amazed by the extent of their involvement.

Teachers have always prized any communications from students who have graduated.  When I started teaching almost forty years ago, that meant now and then running into a former student at a school event or just around town.  Once in a while someone would come back to school just to say hello.  My, how things have changed.

I’ve been receiving occasional emails from students for a few years.   That’s been nice.  Some have sent me papers to review for them during their first comp classes.  Some have just written to say they’ve been studying something we went over, so they felt very prepared.

The last five months or so have been unique.  I have been accepting some Facebook “friend” requests from graduates.  Because of this, I’ve been keeping up with their activities and they have stayed in touch with me.  I’ve still read a few papers, but I’ve also been asked for advice about their classes, their frustrations, some choices they’ve made…and offered encouragement when being a freshman and away from home has been almost too much to handle.

So how do I measure my success?  I pass my “test” when I receive messages from kids in college who are receiving accolades from their teachers for the excellence of their writing; and the email about how they’re seeking and accepting roles as campus leaders; or the visits at school from those who graduated two or three years ago but make a point of stopping in to tell me about their plans for the future.

No, they don’t “ace” every test or always make the best decisions.  I’ve never met anyone who has.  But they learn from their mistakes.  I’m proud of all of them.

Current technology is making it easier for me to “test” myself.  I’m getting more immediate feedback.  I almost feel as if I have another class—Recent Graduates 101.  It’s one of the most fun, and it meets 24/7/365.  And I don’t mind at all.