Teachers!
Some people say our job is to get students to score high enough on the government-mandated-standardized tests to PROVE something.
Some people say our job is to help students learn to enjoy learning in order to make a world of lifelong learners.
Some people say our job is to babysit school-age children while their parents work, so the parents don't have to worry about anything.
Some people say....
Well, some people say we do our job well, but we don't get enough respect...through word or action.
Some say we fail to do our job and therefore politicians who understand how to teach so much better than those of us who were trained to do so should come into our buildings and tell us what to do (read with sarcasm...sorry, I couldn't help myself.)
Some say.....
Well, you know what I say?
I say...;I teach because I have a God-given passion to do so.
I say....I teach the students who find themselves in Room 302 to the best of my ability knowing that each of them didn't just happen to be placed in my class...but they're there for a reason.
I say...I'll be creative in my planning, use the standards as a guide, and in the end...regardless of the test scores...or the governor's stance....or the presidential candidate's son's condemning words...I will teach the student....not the test.... and not for the test...and not for the "school letter grade"....but because it's my calling...my purpose...my passion.
You see...
I teach.
I teach students that seeing an item in a pan of water...isn't just an object in water, but it's a chance to observe what's going on and to learn from it. [Did it float or sink? Why?]
I teach students that when they enter the restroom to be the one to reach down (using a paper towel) and to pick up the used paper towels that are on the floor because someone else didn't respect the school or custodian enough to put it in the trash can.
I teach my students that asking a new student to play at recess shows what type of person you really are.
I teach my students what they haven't learned and review what they have learned in order to be able to reach their goal...of making it to fourth grade...and wherever life takes them.
I teach my students that ALL people can learn at ALL times...you just have to be looking for the lesson.
Proverbs 22:6
"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it."
So...what have I learned?
I learned during my first year of teaching that sending a defiant & disruptive student outside to feed the birds or to the gym to shoot baskets with the assistant principal doesn't teach him to respect or to be responsible. It teaches him if he disrupts my class that he will get out of my class to do something more fun. But I also learned that showing that same student that I like him regardless of his actions did much more in helping my class improve. We all need to be accepted on both our good and bad days!
I learned that sometimes giving a student who lives with a father who doesn't quite "get" a girl's hair a purple hairbrush can show love. When the nurse would use her purple brush to brush out the tangles, I didn't think much about it. But, ten years later when I bump into that third grader as an adult in the dairy aisle of Kroger's, that purple brush is THE memory that she shares. She may or may not have learned other lessons, but she learned that people cared about her needs.
I learned that being consistent in my expectations, even when it prompts weekly (and sometimes daily) discipline shows a boy that you care. When emotional and home life challenges are overwhelming, sometimes just consistently expecting "the best" from him will make an impact....even if you don't see it before the end of the year. That boy may later become a senior who writes about how you never gave up on him and helped him to start making better choices. [Yep, that one prompted tears.]
I learned that what others say about someone isn't always true. Like the girl who entered my room at the end of 2nd grade and uttered the comment, "I heard you're mean," with her nose snarled up. I explained to all of them that EVERY teacher has a MEAN teacher who COMES OUT when she has to, but no teacher enjoys being a mean teacher. In the four years that have passed since that day, I have found great joy in reminding her of those words. When we would be laughing in class or doing a project, I would quickly gasp, "Quick! Somebody shut the door...we must keep the rumor alive!" Then, on her birthday each year, I write "Happy Birthday from Your Mean Teacher" on her FB wall. She replies, "Don't tell anyone but that mean teacher is my favorite teacher." [Aw, my cup runneth over.]
I learned that sometimes...the most challenging years are filled with the most lessons.
-How the angriest student I've ever taught has a good reason to be angry and day-by-day caring for him and trying to get a smile to shine through will chip away at the volcano. [I have several photographs to prove the smiles.]
-How the behavior of some students can so grate your spirit, but those same children will sit across from you at lunch and talk with a smile about things going on in his/her life.
-How students sometime push the envelope just to see if they can push it too far, and when they do...will regret the behavior as tears fall.
-How a child can be having a perfectly good day and then one small misstep triggers an explosion of emotion and anger and that simply breathing, patting him on the back, and reminding him that when he calms down that he needs to do whatever is next...can sometimes be all that is needed to calm the explosion and getting the "good day" to return.
-How students who make good choices daily in a room challenged by students who tend to make negative choices will take every corrective discussion to heart and will have tears in the evening regardless of being one of a handful who made good choices with the substitute in your absence. So, I have to daily remind her that the "mean teacher face/voice" was not ever aimed at her behavior.
-How during those challenging years...the teacher may learn just as much as the students in her class. My lessons learned weren't character analysis and finding evidence in a story...they were character analysis and finding evidence of the students in my room...and along the way analyzing my own character and finding evidence of my own growth as a teacher.
Proverbs 1:5
"Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance..."
Yes....teaching is full of lessons learned and yet to learn. What shall we learn today?
