The Desk Main Site
Sixth Grade Field Day
©02 The Media Desk
http://themediadesk.com
For reasons the Desk will never truly understand it agreed to chaperone the sixth grade on a field day to a local state park.
Well. The kids had a blast. Period.
The park includes a water slide and a huge swimming pool with all sorts of diversions.
[NOTE: Due to the size of the photo files, this story and the pics are posted on an outside server. For these, the Desk is using its subsidiary on yahoo!/geocities. Some Photos will open in a New Window, close that window to return to the story.]
Attempting to cross the floating stepping stones... and getting ready to fall in.
One of the teachers turned out to be the local Middle School's Teacher of the Year.
The Desk did not know this when it took occassion to visit her classroom one day earlier in the year. It knew she was a good teacher and the Desk's daughter really liked her class even though it involved... READING. But it did notice a few things about the class... The kids seemed to WANT to be in there. Which was unusual to say the least.
Teacher of the Year in the Classroom.
Teacher of the Year in her Natural Habitat.
Now the Desk has never been around a Teacher of the Year that it knows of. Let alone having seen one in action in front of the students, and then on another slightly less formal occasion, as seen above. So it took the opportunity, to see what was special about her.
First off, she can relate directly, and yes, face to face, with the students. The Desk noticed that the kids seemed to like not having to crane their necks to talk to her.
So, should the State Schools only hire teachers for the middle grades that are five foot eight or under? The Desk won't even think about answering that one.
Next the kids listened to her without being threatened, bribed or coerced into it. In other classrooms, the teachers sometimes had to beg for the kids to shut up and listen. Calling them by name and threatening something called a 'referral' if they didn't. The Teacher of the Year asked them to quiet down, and they did. Why? Who knows?
Another point was that she obviously enjoys teaching. She likes the kids, and they like her back. She knows her subject and it shows. The Desk knows State School Teachers who are Teachers Only. It's a Job. They do not possess more than a passing familiarity with their subjects, and this year they are in a math classroom whereas last year they were handing out civics tests. Fortunately the Teacher of the Year's compatriots and team members do know their subjects. While they may not be professional astronomers or economists, they are well versed in science and math and have been known to read on their subjects on their days off, as can be seen by the photo, well, they did bring a book or three with them.
So what makes her the best of the lot for the year, or last year as the case may be?
Well. Competence, Fairness, Popularity, Success, and other things both intangible and that can be measured with some sort of test or statistics.
As for the Field Day... It too, was a success. And it could be measured.
How many kids out of the three busloads got sunburned? Poison Ivy?
They did the pool thing then had a picnic. Went on the nature trails. And a predictable few of the usual suspects got in trouble.
But only a few.
For the most part. It was a nice day.
And the Desk developed a great deal of respect for the Middle School Teacher of the Year, and met her family, and talked shop with her and some of her co-workers, and all that.
And the Desk did not get sunburn or poison ivy either.
Although some of the park's lifeguards may have gotten sunburn. This, however, will require further study.
The Desk would like to thank the Staff and Students of the Middle School for their Cooperation in this write-up.
And NO you may not ask the Teacher of the Year's name or school. get over it
Selah
To the main site
http://themediadesk.com
To the Desk on Geocities