Enough

As classroom teachers, we often ask ourselves, "Have I done enough?"
Do my students know enough to . . . .
Be successful on end-of-year assessments?
Explain what we have learned this year in each subject?
Retain informaiton over the summer?
Read any on-grade level text?
Walk into the classroom next fall knowing they will be successful?

For me,  it wasn't just about my students knowing "enough."  I wanted to get them so far ahead of where they needed to be that they could not possibly fail this year--or next year. This didn't happen for every single student every year, but it happened for the vast majority of them. I always told parents, "I don't teach kindergarten (or first grade or third grade) I teach students. I will teach your child as much as I possibly can this year. If your child already knows the entire curriculum by February, then I will extend his or her learning." I didn't usually use a pacing guide because my students were the pacing guide.  If they had mastered the curriculum, we moved on.  If we needed more time, we used it.  Most of the time, all but a few of my students were reading well into the next grade-level or beyond because I continued to push them and challenge them.  The few that lagged behind got extra time with me and we worked until they learned everything they could in one year.

My point in saying this is, don't settle for "enough."  Keep pushing forward.  You have children in your classroom that need to be challenged and you have some time left this year to teach them something more.  We know that the sand in the glass is about to run out.  Most of them (in elementary!) do not.  Keep teaching, keep fighting, keep inspiring, keep challenging.  Enough just isn't enough.