Saturday, November 18, 2006

Tiny Surprises

In my last entry, I felt a little peeved because no matter what I did as a teacher, I thought it was all useless.

Several things happened this week that made me begin to believe again that teaching is always about the students. I could be as disgruntled as high as the heavens, but if I remember my job is about the kids, I should remain sane.

The events that happened were like a pat on the back--I must be doing something good. Things like this are rare. It's not everyday a student comes up to me to say thank you--or to any teacher at all. It shows in other ways.

Two students came up to me to ask me to write their recommendations for jobs and colleges. I used to think that writing recommendations is more work, but later came to realize that these students have trust in me. Trust is important between a teacher and student. If a student respects, likes, and trusts a teacher, then they do more for a teacher. These two students--both students from the past years I've been teaching--trust and like me. Writing those recommendations are so much easier than writing a recommendation by a student who just needs one. Trust is a compliment for my personality. I did something right by gaining their trust.

There are several students who I taught in the past and am teaching now who are acting in the school play of "Antigone." I love this play, and to see so many of my students playing in it inspires me. They all later tell me that they, too, liked the play when I taught it to them. They especially remember the crazy PowerPoint I made which I used to lecture about the Oedipus Myth. Everyone hates English, and if they don't hate it, they just don't like reading anything. To hear my students say that they remember "Antigone" or that their favorite book is Lord of the Flies is a compliment to my teaching. I did something right by engaging them and helping them to bring characters to life.

Recently a student wrote an essay in which he explained important events in his life. He wrote about meeting me and how I am one of the few teachers who pushed him to do any work. Just to read that one-third of his essay was about me, my energetic way of teaching, the tough-love approach I have when I tell my students to work, and probably the only teacher who ever believed in him when most teachers were put off my his "gangster" mentality and machismo attitude towards girls and women--all that he wrote about me made me laugh and inspired me. He writes about how I changed his life. He ranks me up there with his grandmother who passed away. Out of all the compliments I received in my life, his touched me the most. I cried when I read his essay. It was a compliment simply to me and everything that I stood for as a teacher.

June 2007 will be a difficult month. I'm going to see the sophomores I taught two years ago graduate as seniors. Most of them still come up to say hello and talk to me. It's nice to know that they haven't forgotten me just because they had me two years ago. It's nice to know that--no matter what I did--I did something right.