What is a Learner?

Last week I walked by Mrs. Eason's classroom and noticed that students were intensely paying attention to another student presenting. I couldn't help myself and had to see what was going on. Her 9th grade students were presenting speeches on the topic, "What is a Learner?" The first full speech that I had the opportunity to hear came from Hannah Faulkner. If there is anything I could compare her presentation to, it would be an evangelical preacher. I found myself wanting to shout "Amen" several times as she spoke. I asked for a copy of her speech so that I can share it with you. Here are a few excerpts:

"2,340. That's how many days you'll be in school from kindergarten to 12th grade. That's how long you have to plan the rest of your life."
"What is a Learner? Learners can often be overlooked, because they aren't always an A+ student...they work their way around [problems] and persevere."
"Now you probably expect me to list off a bunch of people who persevered to reach the top, but of what relevance are they to us? There's those people like Katie Eason, Rebecca Burris, Lillian Corbitt, Caroline Clark and Charlie Howell who are looked at as only teachers. But that's the thing, they are teachers. Without them, how would we develop into learners? They are the ones that can help us make something of ourselves."
"As a student, stay committed to molding into a learner and use every last minute of those 2,340 days. Whether it's the best times or the worst times, it's the only time you've got."

Here we have a student that is impacted in very very best way possible. She gets it, and that is 100% due to the support she has received from her teachers at Greene Central. As we begin testing for our students, it's nice to also know that while we can teach students to answer questions on our content, we are also teaching students to become real learners.