Since I became a teacher, I've heard and read many negative thoughts about my beloved profession. You know, the regular "teachers only work 9 months of out the year" philosophy. My goal here is not to discount that ideology. I know when I work and I know how hard I work. So do my students. That is enough for me.
Anyway, time to stop babbling. I just read a very interesting blog on the Scholastic Teachers site. The author of the blog, Jeremy Rinkel, makes a point that noone can argue with:
"What do a lawyer, doctor, astronaut and mechanic all have in common? They all have teachers."
Who can argue with that?
Read the rest of his blog. It's good stuff! http://http//blogs.scholastic.com/classroom_solutions/2011/08/creating-a-well-managed-classroom.html
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
You Never Know When You're Making a Difference.
Let me preface this post with a little background information. I teach 8th grade English, which may or may not be relevant to many of my future posts.
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J. transferred into my class about a month after school started. He was a very quiet, reserved young man who only spoke to me if I spoke to him first. This same behavior continued throughout the school year. J. was so quiet that I found it difficult to build the kind of relationship with him that I had with my other students. There were a couple of instances when some of the other boys in his class provoked him to the point of extreme anger. Obviously, I stepped in and forced all of the boys to calm down. J. was always very respectful toward me, even when I was reprimanding his behavior, but I always got the feeling that he just didn't like me.
On the last day of school, before J. walked out of my classroom, he slipped a folded-up piece of notebook paper into my hand. I wondered what the paper was, but I just put it into my pocket because I had some other things to do.
Finally, after the last bell of the year rang, I sat down at my desk to reflect over the end of my first year of teaching. I remembered the note in my pocket and decided this would be a good time to read it. I opened the note and was stunned by the words in front of me:
"Miss G,
I will miss you next year. Thank you for helping me when I was about to make a bad decision. You're like a second mom to me.
J."
Wow. Tears flooded to my eyes. Out of all of the students who had proclaimed the impact I had made in their lives, I had never expected these words from J., which made them all the more meaningful.
We never know when we're making a difference, do we?
____________________________________________________________________
J. transferred into my class about a month after school started. He was a very quiet, reserved young man who only spoke to me if I spoke to him first. This same behavior continued throughout the school year. J. was so quiet that I found it difficult to build the kind of relationship with him that I had with my other students. There were a couple of instances when some of the other boys in his class provoked him to the point of extreme anger. Obviously, I stepped in and forced all of the boys to calm down. J. was always very respectful toward me, even when I was reprimanding his behavior, but I always got the feeling that he just didn't like me.
On the last day of school, before J. walked out of my classroom, he slipped a folded-up piece of notebook paper into my hand. I wondered what the paper was, but I just put it into my pocket because I had some other things to do.
Finally, after the last bell of the year rang, I sat down at my desk to reflect over the end of my first year of teaching. I remembered the note in my pocket and decided this would be a good time to read it. I opened the note and was stunned by the words in front of me:
"Miss G,
I will miss you next year. Thank you for helping me when I was about to make a bad decision. You're like a second mom to me.
J."
Wow. Tears flooded to my eyes. Out of all of the students who had proclaimed the impact I had made in their lives, I had never expected these words from J., which made them all the more meaningful.
We never know when we're making a difference, do we?
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