November Challenge: What I'm proud of...

Day 3

What are you most proud of to date in your teaching career?

This may sound weird, but the thing I'm most proud of are the number of students who "friend" me on Facebook after they graduate from high school.  To add to that "weirdness" is that sometimes the students who wish to stay in contact with me are not the ones I would have thought might want to do so.  

The students I get friend requests from are often the students who talked back or claimed they didn't like English or didn't get the highest grades.  I find this knowledge to be extremely gratifying because that means I succeeded in creating a rapport with my students, even if they didn't make the best grades.  

So, that saying I have pictured here is true.

Connecting with my students in some way that makes the ones who didn't even like my content area want to befriend me after high school, that is what I'm most proud of in my teaching career.  I get to see pictures of their kids.  I get to see statuses (even those non-grammatical ones which make my English teacher heart and soul cringe) about their lives.  And all of that makes this teacher's heart and soul puff out with pride; I made a difference.

November Challenge: Small Delights

Day 2

What is one small delight in the day that you always look forward to?

If we're talking the school day and not the day in general, I would say the small delight I look forward to is the moment just before the first bell rings for the day.  I think of it kind of like the moment just before the curtains open on a stage: everything is set, the desks are--for the only time in the day--perfectly in lines, the room is quiet, and I am taking a deep breath.  The bell rings, and I open the door to a new day.  Kids will come into my room and disrupt the quiet, move the desks, and take my breath away.  The students are then the focus; but that tiny moment just before bell rings is all mine.

November Challenge: The best aspects...

Day 1

What are the best aspects of being a teacher?

Some of the best aspects of being a teacher stare back at me every Monday-Friday for 180 days from mid-August to mid-May with holidays off.  The students.  I know that seems cliche', but it's really true.  The students really are some of the best aspects of being a teacher.  I teach high school kids, and they are filled with hormones and attitude and angst...and I love it.  Every day is a new day with them, and that makes teaching them a challenge.  A challenge I really enjoy.

Another of the best aspects of being a teacher are my colleagues down the hallways of my school.  The people I work with are some of the most devoted people I know.  We work hard to help the students in our charge.  These teachers I work with spend hours of precious time giving their all to our community.  The parents in our community are sending the best they have to us, and we honor that trust by giving our utmost in all our endeavors.

These are the best aspects of being a teacher--the students we serve and the people we serve with.