Thu 18 Nov 2004 @20:08
A former student of mine was a guest in a math class for Teach-In at our school yesterday. He stopped by to say hello afterwards. I have to admit that, while I recognized his name, I don’t really remember him well and would not have recognized him as a former student. (It was over a dozen years ago….)
I figure I have had over 3,000 students in my classes over the years and had less direct contact with several thousand more. I’ll never remember them all. In fact, I sometimes see students in the hallway and know that they were in one of my classes just last year but not be able to recall their name right away. I’m sorry.
The following numbers are from an OCPS publication. Orange County Public Schools is the 5th largest school district in Florida and is now the 12th largest out of more than 16,000 in the nation. The school system owns 4,503 acres acres of property. We have over 174,000 students in 155 schools. Students in Orange County schools come from 230 countries and speak 165 languages and dialects. There are 20,550 full time employees and over 3500 part time. More than 35% of OCPS teachers have advenced degrees. The operating budget for the district is over $1.1 billion.
The numbers that really blow me away are the diversity of our students. Can you even name 230 countries or 165 languages and dialects? This population is far more diverse than where I grew up. And that’s one of the things that keeps it interesting….
November 19th, 2004 at 15:34
Those stats are pretty mind-blowing. I remember just six years ago, the district released stats that attributed 63 different languages to our student population, so either the number is becoming more diverse, or they have developed more accurate ways of tracking the home language of our pupils.
I don’t think any of the kids hold it against you that you can’t remember their name right off the bat–you had a friend of mine at Apopka some years ago, and he remembers you as a cool guy who was interested in his success. I think that is far more important–they remember, and value, the experiences they had in your classroom.
Kick-ass photo, btw, in your previous entry. Glad to see you are back blogging away. Have a great weekend!!!