Hey, everyone! With all the negativity and stress in our profession, I love to hear positive things about teaching. I've been thinking about a student of mine and how much he has touched my life, for whatever reason, and how that is why I became a teacher to begin with! My student is a fourth grader, and is a little wild from time to time. He is a cute kid and he is well liked by the other kids. He also can't read. He is on a kindergarten reading level. When I realized this, my goal was certainly to bring him up this year, but as I got to know him more and more, I realized what a great kid he is. He lives with his grandparents, who are very sweet. He is extremely respectful, and always answers "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am". I have started staying after school with him to work on reading, and it's really been paying off! Today, he got in a little trouble for something, and he got really angry with me. It actually hurt my feelings (but I didn't let him know that ) . But, we did end the day on a good note. I mentioned to another teacher how it had made me feel bad that he was upset with me, because I felt like I had invested so much time into him, and she said "That's because y'all have a special relationship!" And I thought, she's right! We do. And I am so grateful for that. I love each of my kiddos, but there's always those couple of kids that just really latch onto your heart, and he is mine. Who is your special kid???
I'm not a teacher yet, but mine was this summer at camp. I was a counselor for the 5th and 6th graders cabin, and one kid was away from home for the first time. He avoided socialization with other kids, but at the same time was upset that he wasn't making friends. The reason we made a personal bond is partly because I'm autistic, and he is being tested for autism spectrum disorder currently. The 2nd day of camp, he was sitting alone and told me he missed his mom and wanted to go home. I gave him some comforting and told him his feelings were normal and he'd be okay, and to come get me if he was upset again. Later that evening when we were having a discussion activity, he came up to me and started resting his head against me and held onto me tightly the rest of the evening. Throughout the week he said he wished I could be his dad too. Through encouragement, I got him to start making friends with the other kids there, and by the end of the week, while he was excited to be getting back home, said he wanted to come back again next summer because of how fun it was. This kid was also special to me because he answered some questions I had about my past since I was able to observe his behaviors and remember a bit of what I used to be like. Usually it is the kids with social pragmatic and emotional management issues that I bond with the strongest. The connections are partly why I'm still going through the path to try and become a teacher regardless of how stressful it may be,
I felt like I developed a special relationship with a student last year. All of his previous teachers only had bad things to say about him. But he really opened up to me and turned around, pulling in stellar grades, and behavior the entire rest of the year after a very short rocky start. This year, I have a lot of kids who I think are just grand. There is one girl who always says "Thank You" at the end of a lesson! She is so so sweet! I've never had students thank me for a lesson before.
Thanks for giving opportunity to share my experience i ever had in my profession when i was teaching Grade4..A girl Name Sandra.she is so cute and adorable.always keep smiling she is the one attracts every one attention in the entire school. On the day of my session one of the student was ill and got faint,I took him to my room to give first aid and rest.after few Minutes she came with bottle of water and said to him "I hope you need this"and gives him water and hugs him to make him comfort.Though they are kids they are example for others in Kindness.
I had a sophomore a couple of years ago that came in with serious attitude. Every day was a fight and she had an answer for everything. About halfway through the year, she was put on a list of students that had received multiple referrals. The principal wanted teachers to become mentors for these kids- try to find a cause for the behavior. The sophomore started coming to my class for required meetings and opening up about her situation and drama at home. 2 years later, she still comes to see me at least every other day for a hug and a quick chat. She hasn't received a single referral in 2 years and will graduate with honors this spring. I'm crazy proud of her.
I have had some great students over the past five years, and many of them keep in touch with me. One is now in 10th grade and emails me occasionally with new vocabulary words and snippets of stories. Last week, he sent me this email: "I have utterly fantastic news. I made it into the Literary Magazine! Both the poem and the story you asked to submit made it in. It's all I can do right now not to completely freak out. I'm practically bouncing off the walls. Heart-attack inducing excitement aside, I'd like to thank you. You've firstly given me a much deeper appreciation of poetry, and allowed me to open my mind to writing it. I genuinely enjoyed having you as a teacher, and I am thrilled that we can still keep in touch." Yeah, that's the kid right now. I have another one who, during transitions between classes, sings and plays the piano to entertain the students. He's probably going to be another one who stays in my heart.
I worked at a very hands-on alternative school, and the students there changed my perceptions on education. We got the "worst of the worst" kids. Many were high schoolers reading at a first or second grade level. When new kids got to the school, most had bad attitudes. However, after being welcomed into the classroom "family" and seeing all the cool, hands on stuff they got to do, many of them grew academically and socially at a good pace. Most importantly, their life attitudes changed. They learned about things they connected with, like woodworking and the local environment, and kids with persistent truancy issues suddenly weren't missing a day. The program likely prevented many of them from heading into a life spent in prison. I think about that group often when I see the younger problem children in my classroom today. The experience was a double edged sword; I saw an educational system that could work differently but most likely won't change for most kids. I hate when the ADD kids are constantly getting in trouble because I know part of the reason is that they are in the wrong type of classroom. However, I am grateful that the experience gave me a different perspective to view behavior problem kids.
Waaayyyy back in my first year of teaching I taught middle school math to the lowest kids. I had a hard time for awhile. I had this kid in one of my classes the others said was the worst kid in the school. He just sat in the back and was quiet. I would check on him and help some each day. At the end of a few weeks he came up to me and said he wanted to shake my hand. He said I was the first teacher to really help him in middle school. I was hooked. That was in the fall of 1978. His name was Michael D. He spent a lot of time in "alternative school". One day I asked him where it was. He took me to a room in the back of the school and explained it well. Too hot in the winter and too cold in the summer and no one could make a sound. I thought it was a separate campus. I came to love that age group (especially 8th grade) but I ended up in elementary the rest of my career.
3 years ago, a little Iraqi immigrant girl was placed in my second grade classroom. Her name was Basma. No English, terrified... She stayed 2 years with me (she was technically a first grader when she started) and her motivation and desire to learn was so inspirational to me. Her appetite for school was voracious! She moved in the third grade and she must be a fifth grader by now.I miss seeing her! But we do occasionally write to each other