Just when I think that my students are tiny little aliens who don't show real emotion and whose only job is to completely turn off their hearing when I talk, they surprise me.
Sometimes you forget that your students are real life tiny human beings who, deep down inside, are very sweet little angels.
This past week, I experienced something very scary on my team. One of our teachers got sick and went down. Almost immediately we ran into action. But more surprising was the fact that our students ran also immediately into action.
In that moment many things flashed through my mind: My friend is hurt; we need to call 911; holy crap...we have 130 students outside in the open, running around crazy! And that's when I looked up and saw something amazing...there weren't 130 students running around crazy. Rather, there were 130 students running into action without a second thought.
Some were running to get help, others were running to check on their teacher, while still others were offering CPR. It was an amazing site to see. These tiny little humans had suddenly become our guardian angels who, in that moment, where the adults. They were the ones who were staying calm and they were the ones who were going to tell us it will be ok.
Sitting here now, with everyone healthy and safe, I am finally starting to absorb what happened. So many times teachers just look at the negative about their students. They won't listen, they won't do their homework, they just don't care. We are all guilty of these negative thoughts. I have these sometimes several times a week. But the actions of my students this past week made me realize that they are empathetic, amazing students.
Sometimes it takes a scary situation to make us teachers remember that these kids are incredible people who really care about us. Sometimes it takes something scary to show us that we aren't the only protectors in the school. Sometimes things like this show us that we too are in need of protection...and the most unlikely sources might be our protectors.
Sometimes you forget that your students are real life tiny human beings who, deep down inside, are very sweet little angels.
This past week, I experienced something very scary on my team. One of our teachers got sick and went down. Almost immediately we ran into action. But more surprising was the fact that our students ran also immediately into action.
In that moment many things flashed through my mind: My friend is hurt; we need to call 911; holy crap...we have 130 students outside in the open, running around crazy! And that's when I looked up and saw something amazing...there weren't 130 students running around crazy. Rather, there were 130 students running into action without a second thought.
Some were running to get help, others were running to check on their teacher, while still others were offering CPR. It was an amazing site to see. These tiny little humans had suddenly become our guardian angels who, in that moment, where the adults. They were the ones who were staying calm and they were the ones who were going to tell us it will be ok.
Sitting here now, with everyone healthy and safe, I am finally starting to absorb what happened. So many times teachers just look at the negative about their students. They won't listen, they won't do their homework, they just don't care. We are all guilty of these negative thoughts. I have these sometimes several times a week. But the actions of my students this past week made me realize that they are empathetic, amazing students.
Sometimes it takes a scary situation to make us teachers remember that these kids are incredible people who really care about us. Sometimes it takes something scary to show us that we aren't the only protectors in the school. Sometimes things like this show us that we too are in need of protection...and the most unlikely sources might be our protectors.