Teacher Sets High Expectations For Students

This post is part of a series by Teach for America corps members teaching in Massachusetts schools.

Throughout elementary and middle school, my dad often dropped me off in the carpool line.  And each morning, before he let me say goodbye and head into the school building, he asked me to fill in the blanks to his favorite saying: “Sarah, you’re going to college on a what?” “A scholarship,” I would reply. He continued with, “because the more you learn, the more you…?” “Earn.”

As I embarked on my teaching career, I couldn’t help but remember how my dad consistently expressed that he believed in me whole-heartedly and made it his mission to help me believe the same.  And he not only presented an expectation, but also coupled it with an understandable rationale.  After years of repeating that I was going to one day go to college on a scholarship because the more I learned, the more I could earn, it became my motto as much as it was my dad’s.

Committed teachers supported my dad’s efforts to help me believe in my own potential. Their ever-high expectations encouraged me to be a self-advocate and equipped me with the tools necessary to set goals and run after them. Reflecting on my dad’s words and teachers’ guidance has played a significant role as I’ve envisioned and practiced high expectations in my classroom at International High School (INT) in Lawrence. Step one: believe in the potential of ALL students to succeed.

INT serves a spectacular group of students. Nearly all of them are native Spanish speakers who have only recently immigrated to the U.S. and are working to acquire English proficiency amidst learning science, math, social studies, art, and health. The challenges they’re encountering are many, and they urgently need advocates who genuinely believe in their ability to set meaningful goals and develop the skills needed to achieve them. In my experience, this belief cultivates a positive classroom environment whose expectations students eagerly want to meet.

I have my students establish their own short and long-term goals. What do they want to be when they grow up? Why? How are they going to get there? As they map out the small goals they will need to accomplish to reach their bigger dreams, they almost always arrive at the conclusion that our biology class is in fact vital to their long-term success. Recognizing this and re-acknowledging it throughout the school year helps provide the fire to continually strive to meet the high expectations we’ve set.  From our time in the classroom together, it is clear that my kids want to be held to a high standard, want to be supported in reaching those big goals, and want to be told when they’re veering off course.

In my classroom, our big goal is that students pass the MCAS exam and master the skills they’ll need to be ready for college-level coursework. To ensure we’re on track to meet our goal, I regularly show students the colorful chart on which we track their progress, celebrate successes, and meet with students who show signs of feeling overwhelmed. Consistency in each of these areas, though certainly not easy to maintain, is essential for optimizing my students’ growth.

So, at the end of the day, if we don’t maintain high expectations that accelerate learning, we are depriving students of the opportunity to know what they’re truly capable of achieving. As teachers, we have the privilege to consistently set the bar above status quo and believe in our students. They can and will succeed.

Sarah Grace King is a Teacher for America corps member teaching at the International High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts