First thing this morning one of my 10th grade boys stopped me to tell me he was moving to Florida and that today was his last day at school. When he came to say goodbye after school he told me that he might cry, and, with tears forming in my eyes, I told him it was an appropriate time to do so. I will truly miss him.
My 9th grade girls keep bringing in baby pictures to hang on my wall. When an older student stopped in to ask what that was about, one student replied, "it's because we're family."
After a particularly difficult history quiz this afternoon, one of my girls ran up to tell me she got an 80%. She gave me a big hug and told me history is her new favorite subject. Her first test grade this fall was a 31%. I am so proud of her.
One of the senior boys found out at 4PM that he got into Dartmouth. I was in a car full of co-workers and students when we found out. We all cheered, loudly.
This past weekend my friend Johanna came to visit because the boys' basketball team of the school where she teaches was playing BTA (my school). She pointed out the boys that she teaches, and then asked me which boys on our team I knew. I proceeded to list the boys I taught, and then the boys that I interact with on a daily basis (all of them, really). It's hard to explain. BTA isn't really a school so much as it's a big family. Probably only half of what I do on a daily basis is academic in nature. The rest of the time is spent giving advise, affirming and encouraging, scolding, teasing, and being teased in return.
After days like today it's hard to believe that there are schools that would disapprove of most of the interactions I had with my students today. Too much physical contact (most of my one-on-one conversations involve my hand on someone's shoulder), too personal of conversation, too informal of a teacher-student relationship. Yet, I think it's these interactions that I learn the most from, and probably that they do, too. Even when I can't stand to be around them, I love them.... we're more like a family.
2 comments:
It's reasons like that why we're in this profession.
Amy that's the kind of school I went to in high school, that's the way I try to interact with my kids at church, and do a lot. Thanks for the post, you're helping them become incredible people.
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