Today was one of those days as a teacher that I really realized why I teach. So many teachers get into this profession to ONLY teach students the curriculum. Some even get into teaching to simply get off for the summers. But when you think about it, why do we really teach?!
Yes we teach to help the students learn and to get them to understand different parts of some very tough subjects. But the real reason we teach is to help the kids who are otherwise helpless.
Today this really hit home for me. It's tough to see some of my brightest, hardest working students struggling with such painful personal problems that it interferes with their work. There are moments in this profession that you have to put aside the curriculum and see the students for who they really are...children who need all the love we can offer them.
There are going to be moments in this profession where you will have to buy reading glasses for students (even if they are for women), when you will have to give the money you brought for your lunch to a student so that they could eat for the first time in days, where you will spend all of your holiday shopping money on a student just to see them smile when they tell you about their gifts (ones that they have never received before and ones that you will never let them know you bought).
These are the moments that we teach and these are the moments that are unforgettable. I have done many of these things and never want accolades. All I want is to see my students smile. Because just like a lot of my colleagues, these students are more than just students, they our my kids too.
Yes we teach to help the students learn and to get them to understand different parts of some very tough subjects. But the real reason we teach is to help the kids who are otherwise helpless.
Today this really hit home for me. It's tough to see some of my brightest, hardest working students struggling with such painful personal problems that it interferes with their work. There are moments in this profession that you have to put aside the curriculum and see the students for who they really are...children who need all the love we can offer them.
There are going to be moments in this profession where you will have to buy reading glasses for students (even if they are for women), when you will have to give the money you brought for your lunch to a student so that they could eat for the first time in days, where you will spend all of your holiday shopping money on a student just to see them smile when they tell you about their gifts (ones that they have never received before and ones that you will never let them know you bought).
These are the moments that we teach and these are the moments that are unforgettable. I have done many of these things and never want accolades. All I want is to see my students smile. Because just like a lot of my colleagues, these students are more than just students, they our my kids too.