Online Reflection #5- Creatures for a While

There are always two sides to every story. The grass is always greener on the other side. The sun will come out tomorrow. Feel free to add on your own cliché at any time. However, the latter cliché may be the most significant to a teacher for a couple of reasons. Yes of course the sun will come out tomorrow and that is a good thing, at least I hope you believe it is, for tomorrow has the possibility of being much better than today. That student who is on your last nerve today may be an angel tomorrow and hang on your every word. The point I am trying to make is don’t give up on your students and don’t give up on yourself either. 

Having spent a good amount of time in my middle school classrooms this semester I have seen students perform at their unexpected best and disappointing worst. I have seen students disconnect themselves from the class and practically be unreachable by any means of instruction or flat out begging to do their work. Having witnessed this behavior occur on multiple occasions and seeing my CT’s do everything they can to get through to that particular student I finally asked “Is there ever a time when you just can’t reach a student and you give up?” Reassuringly my CT’s said “No, you do the best you can and you keep doing it.”

In the back of my head I knew that they would say what they did and never thought they would come out and say “Oh yeah, if they can’t understand what’s going on, hey, it’s their fault I gotta move on.” I just wanted the reassurance of the fact that as a teacher they were going to do all that was in their power to help that student. As frustrating as it is having the same issues with the same students day after day you just have to tell yourself that somehow, someway you are making a difference for those students by not quitting on them or throwing in the towel on the way you prepare or instruct the class (and they know it, but they don’t want you to know).

As I was talking about this topic with one of my CTs they told me a story from when they were at a different school, a high school, several years ago. My CT had a male student who was very difficult in class and showed no promise of improving or graduating for that matter. The student ended up graduating and entered the military soon after. One year later that same student came back to see my CT in full formal military uniform to thank them and tell them that they were his favorite teacher and appreciated all that they had done for him in their class. Needless to say my CT was shocked and tremendously grateful for the complements. However, my CT felt that they really hadn’t done anything extraordinary and really wondered why this student liked them so very much. The one thing that my CT did say was that they did not lessen their expectations for that student and held them accountable for their work, A.K.A not giving up on the student. Even though there was tension between that student and my CT it was because of this fact that student respected my CT so much. 

In sum, students need us no matter how much they act like they don’t. It is our job to not let ourselves get pushed away by their behavior. Just remember they may be creatures for a while, but students for the long run so do not let go of your expectations and keep them high and the students will reap the rewards.