My school has a lovely tradition for teacher appreciation week. Sometime during the week, the students each bring two flowers which are arranged in a boquet for the teacher. I know it's been a hard year for my students; it's been a tough transistion for me. They started off with a fun, entertaining teacher and then suddenly he was yanked away from them and they got me: a stressed out control-freak. But what I love about seventh graders is that they are mostly forgiving. They are great at starting nearly every day as if it were fresh with no mistakes. Even though this has been a tough year for all of them, many of them greet me with a smile and a friendly hello or good morning. And many of them try very hard, doing their best on their work and raising their hands to participate.After this boquet of flowers appeared on my desk, a few proudly pointed out the flowers they brought in for me, which to me suggests the greatest sign of neverending optimism and forgiveness.
2 comments:
My first year I made it through on one constantly repeated mantra... "Kids are resilient... they'll get a good teacher next year... I can't mess them up too badly... kids are resilient..."
Non-teachers may think that sounds like a cop out, but those that know... know! If you care enough to worry about how badly you are messing them up, and you keep plugging along, you will probably teach them something they will remember!
Zoiks - for some reason, it didn't sink in to me that you were teaching seventh graders. Kudos. And zoiks again. I think that was possibly the hardest year of my K-12 career - and I know very few people (exactly two) who liked the seventh grade. I think you're right about mostly being forgiving, though. Even the teachers who really were awful (I'm not talking strict - I'm talking unfair and mean-spirited) got unlimited chances, almost. Seventh graders are still kids and still hope for approval and affirmation. Heck - even 30-year olds do that. :)
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