In case you don't know, I love teaching. However, when most people describe why they love it they often explain how much the love watching the "light bulb" go off for their students. That is not what I love about teaching (not that I don't enjoy watching students "get it"), No, for me there are far more wonderful aspects of this job .
1) Watching students learn to advocate for themselves and communicate. I have received very few emails from parents this year. Instead, students are emailing me themselves. They are asking questions about assignments, requesting retakes, and requesting my feedback. They are the ones telling me they will be missing class for two days or that their internet will be down on Friday. This thrills me because I know how hard it is for them, but I know this is one of the most important skills they will learn.This is why my first lesson of the year was email etiquette. By the way, my students are TWELVE! They are amazing!
2) Relationships. Getting to know my students personally is a privilege and brings me so much joy. Working with young people has given me so much hope for the future. My classes are filled with bright, creative, thoughtful, insightful, and kind humans. They each have unique personalities. If you have your own children, I am sure you have often thought about how "different" each child is. Well, I have taught thousands of students, and I can say that no two have been alike.
3)Watching students learn tenacity. When I switched to standards-based grading, one of my primary goals was for students to be more concerned about learning and less concerned about grades. I also wanted them to learn that it's okay to make mistakes and not get something right the first time. This system has helped my students to be tenacious and not live in "fear" of failure. It's okay to mess up. You can try again. I honestly feel all schools and colleges should implement this grading system. It encourages students to learn the material and not settle for mediocrity. Students still try their hardest because they don't necessarily want to have to do something twice...or even three or four times!
4) Learning from my students. Yes, everyday! Today I asked my students what the last thing they ate was. One boy told me he had toast with martmite. I corrected him and said, "Oh, you mean marmalade." He insisted it was Marmite. Of course, another student knew what it was. I stopped class for him to explain what it was to the rest of us. That's a silly example, I know. But, they also point out things in books we are reading that I hadn't thought about before. They teach me slang words like "yeet" and "boomer". How fun is that?
5. I'm a better person because of teaching. My students have made me a more patient, empathetic person. I've watched my students deal with learning and physical disabilities. I've watched them endure having a parent in prison, losing a parent to cancer, and even having cancer themselves. My students have taught me to freely extend grace and kindness. My students have taught me to apologize when I mess up because they deserve that.
These are just some of the joys of teaching. If a lightbulb goes off, that's great too!
You sometimes say "If something is too good to be true, it probably isn't." But I can't say that applies to you. Your empathy and kindness for us students is what encourages us to send our own Emails to you and to spend time sharing ideas. Your gregarious attitude warmly welcomes everyone into your classes, and there is no dearth of happiness. You have turned our modicum of time in each class into a plethora of engaging activities. So, I'd like to add, you aren't just watching students do these things, you are encouraging, assisting, and promoting us to learn tenacity, to advocate for ourselves, and to share knowledge with others- the three most important things that humans need to unified. That's what gets you excited about teaching and that's what gets me excited about learning! I consider myself auspicious to be in your class!
ReplyDeleteReason number 6 "Students using their words of the week to respond to my blog posts." :) Thank you so much for your kind comments. I can't take the credit but thanks. :) I love our class.
ReplyDeleteThank you for touching our kids lives! Jake lights up when he talks about you as his teacher. This was SUCH a challenging, dark year for so many-and you continued to shine and teach from your heart. Forever grateful.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! I just saw this comment. Thank you so much. Jake is a JOY!
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