With pay day right around the corner, some of us look at it as just another reminder of how little we make. But remember, someday that kid who sat in the back of the room not saying a word and not doing any work will come up to you and thank you for making a difference in their life. It's not just about the money, it's about making a difference and touching students' lives. Have a great week!
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Teachers spend years in school, whether it's college or continuing their education after graduation. It seems that as teachers we almost never stop learning. Just like our students we continue to be taught lessons along our paths. But there is one thing that we are never taught, one thing that no professor or book can prepare us for....a tragedy at school.
Unfortunately, at some point most teachers will probably experience a tragedy. When the moment hits, your mind immediately goes blank, you can't think, and you don't know what to say. When you finally come out of your fog, you look up to see blank, innocent stares looking back at you. In this moment you snap back into reality and your adrenaline kicks in. These faces are looking at you for guidance, for support. You spend the rest of the day passing out tissues, giving hugs, and simply being a shoulder to cry on. You do everything to make them laugh, calm them down, and take their minds off things. At the end of the day you finally sit down at your desk to absorb the events that took place, exhausted; broken. And that's when it hits you, what actually happened. Immediately the water works begin. Tears flow down your eyes like a river and you feel like you can't breathe. Just when you feel like you've reached your breaking point, you look up to see the same blank, innocent stares you saw this morning looking back at you. Before you realize what's happening, you are the one receiving the tissues, getting the hugs, and using the shoulder to cry on. You are getting the same comfort you gave earlier and it puts your mind at ease. And in that moment you step back for a moment and realize how truly lucky you are; not because you're rich or have a great car but because you have angels in your class each day who love you just as much as you love them. It's happened already, I have had a movie day in class. I think 4 weeks into school is a record for longest time elapsed before showing a movie. We all know the kids love movie days. I mean you remember walking into school, tired and dreading yet another class. Then you see it....the TV at the front of the room. Immediately you wake up and smile from ear to ear. A TV at the front of the room means only one thing....MOVIE DAY!
But let's not give the students all of the celebration.....teachers love movie days just as much. Every teacher has been there. We all have had those times when we are feeling overwhelmed by the growing pile of papers that need to be graded and need just a day to play catch up. That's when we decide a movie is perfect. The kids will stay quiet and you will be able to grade. But why do movie days get a bad wrap? Why are they looked at simply as 'free days'? In this day in age, movies are a great way grab students attention and keep it for an extended period of time. They also help students learn easier, sometimes without even making them think they are learning at all. All in all, are movies really all that bad? They give students different opportunities to see the material they are learning in a new light and, let's face it, they make everyone involved happy! It's a full moon so get read for some crazy! When they get too crazy, just show them what crazy really looks like! Happy Monday! #fullmoon #education #teach
As a teacher, you see close to 130 students every year and they are all from different walks of life. You have the shy ones, the crazy ones, the loud ones, and the ones that you just really don't understand. Some of them are easy, some of them are difficult but one thing is for sure, they are all unique.
At the end of the year you always have to say goodbye and prepare yourself to welcome a new group of students in a few short months. Through all of the hugs and good-byes, there is always one thought in the back of your mind. What will happen to these kids? You begin to play out different scenarios in your head. Maybe the shy kid who nobody talked to will become the ladies' man who has to fight the girls off him. Maybe that tiny kid (tiny tot as the teachers affectionately called him) will hit a huge growth spirt this summer, try-out for varsity basketball, become captain, and eventually get a full ride to his top school. And the kid that wouldn't even write his name on his paper (no name Ned is what you secretly called him) will realize the power of knowledge and will become valedictorian. You could make up scenarios like this in your head all day and hope they come true. But every once in a while you come across a student that stumps you. He is that kid that has the rough home. The kid that has seen more in his short life than you will see in all of yours. You try hard to think about a scenario for this kid but your mind goes blank. You go home at night and can't help but worry, "Will he have a place to sleep? Will he get enough food? What will he do next year?" We all know this student. The one who is smart but doesn't get good grades because he struggles to balance the stress of his home life. The student who made stupid decisions just to be accepted and paid for them by being suspended. This is the student that when asked where he wanted to go college told you he is unable to go because he got into so much trouble. This is the student who has bounced from house to house and relative to relative never knowing where he would sleep at night. During the 180 short days that you taught him, you really tried to get through. You reassured him that his past troubles will be overlooked as long as he tried hard and did his best. You consistently told him how great of a writer he was and pulled his poems out of the trash to read after he got frustrated and threw them away. And on the last day of school you looked at him with kind eyes, trying to show him that it'll be ok and to encourage him to be the best he can be in high school. For the last couple years you have gone home to your warm bed and your full refrigerator wondering if this student had the same. You asked coworkers and other students if they knew how he was doing. And then one day, while at the store, you ran into him (literally ran into him because you weren't paying any attention). With a smile from ear to ear he screams your name and fist bumps you. He immediately begins to rattle off about how hard high school is but also how awesome and fun it is. He tells you he has all A's and B's and that he is applying to colleges next year. He rambles on about all of the friends he has made and the football games he has attended. He talks about how he can't wait to go to college and that he wants to be an engineer. And then he says something that really shocks you....."Thank you." He goes on to thank you for all you did for him. For the kind words and the encouragement. For the hallway talks and the stickers on his tests. And after his thank you's, he quickly fist bumps you and scurries away. As you are left in the pasta aisle stunned, you begin to replay what just happened. Then you smile. You smile because the kid who wanted so much to be loved and accepted, who never had a stable home, who had so much potential, is surpassing his goals. You find peace within knowing that he is going to be all right. As a teacher, we don't always know what will happen to our students after they leave our classroom. We don't always know the impact we will have on them in life. Sometimes we might even find ourselves thinking "Why should I try so hard when they don't even seem to care?" But at the end of the day remember this, no matter what the kids might say or do, when you encourage them and show them you care that impacts them for the rest of their lives. You never know who is listening but in the end you are making an impact on these kids lives, you are making an impression. Because in the end, you might just be one smile away from changing a child's life! "Hallelujah! We did it! I am so happy, I might cry!" That's right, you did it...you survived the first week of school. You came, you saw, they conquered! This has felt like the longest week of your life and you are exhausted! Your back hurts , your feet are killing you, and somehow muscles you didn't even know you had are throbbing. Your voice is gone and if you have to open one more locker you might just quit.
The first week is always full of ups and downs. From the moment the students walk in on that first day there is drama and screaming; smiles and laughing. It almost seems like the same thing every year. You go through the same routines and teach the same 'getting to know you' activities the first day. I often have people ask me how I can be a teacher because I 'do the same thing day in and day out every year.' "Doesn't that get boring?" they ask. The answer to this questions is a resounding 'NO!' Yes you teach the same curriculum and most of the time you have the same routines and procedures but there is absolutely no way teaching is boring. You might wake up in the morning knowing exactly what you are doing and what will happen but as soon as you hit those halls, it all changes. Sometimes the change is good, but sometimes it is bad. You will have days when change is in the form of a fire drill and then days were change is in the form of a fight you have to break up followed by a trip to the nurse. No matter what, you know that the change is good. Change means you have a new goal to work towards. It means that students need new direction and that you need a new purpose. Teaching requires change because no student is the same. On the drop of a dime you must be able to turn into a nurse, or a parent, a sibling or a friend. Although there is always something different, the only change that matters is the one that you do in your classroom. It is your job to change the students' outlooks. You must change them from self-conscious to confident, sad to happy, and most importantly a strange kid to a caring young adult who you would be proud to call your own. As in all situations, there isn't always an easy path. With all change comes struggle: the struggle to change the most stubborn student into the happiest, the struggle to put a smile on the face of the bullied student, and the struggle to help the one student know that no matter what goes on at home, you can assure them that things will get better. Change isn't always easy and a lot of the time it is straight up scary but at the end of the day, you're a teacher and you have the ability to create positive change. As a teacher you might be the only person that hugs them, or smiles at them, or even shows them that you care. You are their teacher but they look at you as much more. To them you are a friend, a mentor, and a person who helped change them from the shy, stubborn, pre-teen to the confident, out-going young adult they are today. Not only that, but they change you. They make you see that there is a future, that there is good in the world, and that there are young minds out there who are willing to learn and grow. So the next time someone asks you how you can do the same thing every day without any change, you just look at them, smile, and say "If you got to be there when the doors opened on the first day and saw those tired, grumpy faces, you'd understand. Have a great year! |
AuthorI have been an 8th grade teacher for 5 years. Although this is a short amount of time, I have seen and heard things that will make anyone laugh, or cry.Teaching can be a very stressful profession but it is one that I wouldn't trade for the world. Archives
February 2016
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