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Cheryl Tattersall is a seventh and eighth grade math teacher at Alvarado Intermediate School.
I’ve just become involved with the design team for Ball which has really helped me become a better teacher. I’ve been in the district for 31 years, so I’ve done a lot of in-services here, but this experience is making me really think about what my practices are, and what I can do to make sure that the students are getting better at what they’re doing and thinking, “I can do this.” I also went to another meeting on leadership that was called, “Don’t Just Stand There – Lead”, which made me look at my leadership in the classroom.
These experiences have made me clarify in my mind what my goal is with my students – and it’s not just mathematics. It’s also for them to be successful in what they do. So, I’ve been bringing all this work into my classroom, asking the kids to think about, “What are you doing that’s making you a success, and what do you need to do to be better?” I have some kids who have still not been successful, but I also have a lot of kids whose grades in the first quarter were almost all Ds, and in this last reporting period, had all As, Bs, and Cs. I don’t attribute their success to me – it’s more them feeling that they’re successful. They just needed somebody to be there for them and to say, “You can do it. You just have to put some effort into it.”
I also think that my whole change of attitude and philosophy is helping the kids to say, “I can do this,” especially because I have a lot of students who feel like they’ve been failures for so long.
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