I graduated from college with a teaching job lined up, ready to change the world--one student at a time. I had dreams of helping kids through their hardest struggles during their teen years. I would be the best teacher, mentor, and coach that those kids ever had. I felt apprehensive, but somewhat ready. After all, I had been to college. I had been through my teaching program. I had learned tons of classroom management styles, literacy strategies, and curriculum. I thought I had it all figured out; I thought my biggest concern would be dealing with unruly students. I wasn’t prepared for what they didn’t teach me.
No one taught me what to do when a student yells in my face. No one taught me what to do when a student shouts something inappropriate at me in the gym and I’m too shocked to do anything. No one taught me how to deal with parents who are overbearing but blame the teacher when their student doesn’t turn in work. And no one taught me what to do when one of my students had to move away unexpectedly. No one taught me how to console his friends or help them move on.
No one taught me what to do when a student yells in my face. No one taught me what to do when a student shouts something inappropriate at me in the gym and I’m too shocked to do anything. No one taught me how to deal with parents who are overbearing but blame the teacher when their student doesn’t turn in work. And no one taught me what to do when one of my students had to move away unexpectedly. No one taught me how to console his friends or help them move on.
No one taught me how to react when a student trusts me enough to share things about their home life with me. No one taught me how to congratulate a student on a C paper because that paper was the best thing they’d written all year. No one taught me how to contain the joy and pride that bubbles up when one of my students accomplishes something they didn’t believe they could do. No one told me how much I would come to love my students--or if they did, maybe I didn’t quite believe them.
While this sounds like a long list of complaints, it’s really just a long list of things I’m grateful for. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of things I’ve learned by simply being in my own classroom. And I’ve learned so much that I couldn’t have learned from sitting at a desk during my teaching program--or even from student teaching. These are the things they can’t teach you--the things I had to figure out for myself as they came along; the things I had to ask my mentor teacher--who is insanely patient--about. I’m still figuring it all out. It felt a little like drowning last year. This year, I feel like I’m floating. Maybe next year I’ll start treading water.
While this sounds like a long list of complaints, it’s really just a long list of things I’m grateful for. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of things I’ve learned by simply being in my own classroom. And I’ve learned so much that I couldn’t have learned from sitting at a desk during my teaching program--or even from student teaching. These are the things they can’t teach you--the things I had to figure out for myself as they came along; the things I had to ask my mentor teacher--who is insanely patient--about. I’m still figuring it all out. It felt a little like drowning last year. This year, I feel like I’m floating. Maybe next year I’ll start treading water.
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