If there is anything about my two years that I am the most proud of, it would be the love and care that I have shown my students since I became their teacher. When I came into MTC, I was so ready to devote myself to something and really give it my all. Turns out, teaching is the best profession for someone who wants to work really hard. My days quickly became all about lessons, meetings, teaching, sport games, and choir concerts. My first year, I went to watch the 6th grade football league on Saturday mornings in Sardis and went to watch basketball practice about 3 nights a week in the school gym. I desperately wanted my students to know that I cared and was invested in them. I learned the hard way that year 1 is a constant effort to win your students over. I believe that all students want to love and trust their teachers, but getting there is a process and as the adult, you can not give up trying. It would have been easy to stop going to practices and to put in less effort on my lessons and chalk it up to the "they don't care anyway" rhetoric. I took every bad day at school as a sign that my students still did not believe in my devotion to them, and it only fueled my focus more.
I am so glad that I did not stop showing up.
I feel so much genuine love from the students I had last year and I know it is due to the consistency I showed last year. I also see a huge difference in how my current students interact with me compared to those from last year. I sense an understanding that I care and truly love them. The pay off for surviving year 1 is absolutely huge and after getting through such a difficult year I am overwhelmingly grateful for every good moment I experience this year.
I am so glad that I did not stop showing up.
I feel so much genuine love from the students I had last year and I know it is due to the consistency I showed last year. I also see a huge difference in how my current students interact with me compared to those from last year. I sense an understanding that I care and truly love them. The pay off for surviving year 1 is absolutely huge and after getting through such a difficult year I am overwhelmingly grateful for every good moment I experience this year.
One very important aspect of caring for your students is that oftentimes, the pay off for caring is slow to arrive. I really wish someone would have told me that before my first year. I felt like I was doing everything I could to show my students that I was genuinely interested in their lives but was always greeted with the same disrespect I had gotten before. Luckily for me, I had Ms. McConnell encouraging me to stay the course. As time went on, I learned that children often need you to prove your dedication a million times before they even hint at believing you. It really did take the length of my entire first year to feel the appreciation of my students. Below, I have screenshots of very sweet emails I have received from one of my students from last year. We were close throughout the year, and she was one of the few students that showed acknowledgement of my care early on. We are still very close and I love watching her from my place in her world.