What Accompanies Teaching?
What accompanies teaching?
Is it a smile in the mornings and a laugh at the end of the day?
Or is it a list of rules and procedures that are to be consistently enforced at all times?
Maybe it is the creativity that accompanies lesson planning?
Or even the diligence to remain calm at all times, even in those instances where internally, you are screaming just to maintain your sanity?
Are these the things that accompanies teaching?
ABSOLUTELY!!!!! But.... what about the rest?
Late nights, early mornings, disconnection with a large portion of the world, and reality if you are lucky;
Tightly scehduled days and overly-extended nights;
Praising those students who choose to listen and reprimanding those who don't;
Calling parents who are very receptive of your call and also consistently calling those parents who choose not to return them;
Making time to plan lessons and even more time to revise the lessons you just made;
Or even creating an activity on the spot because one of your students was just too fast...
...Smiling despite the fact that your heart is about to burst with pain for all the children you encounter and want to "save", not realizing that they are not helpless creatures waiting to be rescued, but instead they are powerful individuals with unlimited potential... if only you could help them realize this;
Or if only you could change the path of our current educational system, a system that somehow remains passionate and committed to educational inequalities that repeatedly let our children down... an educational system that accepts educational inequities and a sytsem that fails to realize that failure is never final.
Or how about complaining just to keep yourself from crying at the fact that you have 12 great students who have been forced to reside at a literary disadvantage because of the mark of their skin; and then having the epiphany that there are thousands more just like them throughout our regions.
How about connecting with and loving children that you have only known for a day; despite their flaws, loving the beauty and uniqueness of each and every student that you happily label as your own...
And I can't forget about those children who you feel that you were somehow meant to meet; and the ones who were honored to meet you; they just haven't figured out how to tell you.
Sadly, you must mention those students who reside in a life of violence and fear, hunger and humiliation, sadness and confussion... and yet they find a reason to still smile.
I must mention the children who overcome obstacles to learn and those who are never given the opportunity.
What accompanies teaching?
Emotion... and heart... and courage... and love... and passion... and patience... and humility... and the understanding that you will make mistakes but the deisre to strive for perfection nevertheless... and respect... and loyalty... and optimistic realism... and ME!!!!!!!
Is it a smile in the mornings and a laugh at the end of the day?
Or is it a list of rules and procedures that are to be consistently enforced at all times?
Maybe it is the creativity that accompanies lesson planning?
Or even the diligence to remain calm at all times, even in those instances where internally, you are screaming just to maintain your sanity?
Are these the things that accompanies teaching?
ABSOLUTELY!!!!! But.... what about the rest?
Late nights, early mornings, disconnection with a large portion of the world, and reality if you are lucky;
Tightly scehduled days and overly-extended nights;
Praising those students who choose to listen and reprimanding those who don't;
Calling parents who are very receptive of your call and also consistently calling those parents who choose not to return them;
Making time to plan lessons and even more time to revise the lessons you just made;
Or even creating an activity on the spot because one of your students was just too fast...
...Smiling despite the fact that your heart is about to burst with pain for all the children you encounter and want to "save", not realizing that they are not helpless creatures waiting to be rescued, but instead they are powerful individuals with unlimited potential... if only you could help them realize this;
Or if only you could change the path of our current educational system, a system that somehow remains passionate and committed to educational inequalities that repeatedly let our children down... an educational system that accepts educational inequities and a sytsem that fails to realize that failure is never final.
Or how about complaining just to keep yourself from crying at the fact that you have 12 great students who have been forced to reside at a literary disadvantage because of the mark of their skin; and then having the epiphany that there are thousands more just like them throughout our regions.
How about connecting with and loving children that you have only known for a day; despite their flaws, loving the beauty and uniqueness of each and every student that you happily label as your own...
And I can't forget about those children who you feel that you were somehow meant to meet; and the ones who were honored to meet you; they just haven't figured out how to tell you.
Sadly, you must mention those students who reside in a life of violence and fear, hunger and humiliation, sadness and confussion... and yet they find a reason to still smile.
I must mention the children who overcome obstacles to learn and those who are never given the opportunity.
What accompanies teaching?
Emotion... and heart... and courage... and love... and passion... and patience... and humility... and the understanding that you will make mistakes but the deisre to strive for perfection nevertheless... and respect... and loyalty... and optimistic realism... and ME!!!!!!!
posted by Alleviation at 10:49 PM
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