Tag Archives: Students

Education, On My Mind

Thank a Teacher

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A pretty rose

Friday was Teachers Day at school and I walked away with 14 roses, a purse, a mug full of candy, several cards, and a slew of “thanks for everything” and “we love you” messages on my board.

My students, adorably, wanted to know if there’s a Students Day. I had to laugh when I told them that every day is Students Day.

Teachers Day, or Teacher Appreciation Day, always makes me think about what I’ve learned and from whom. Most people have had the honor and the pleasure of teaching someone else, formally or informally, recognized or unrecognized. Teachers aren’t always the people in our classrooms; often, they’re people in the “real world” of our lives. I truly believe that each person has something to offer and something to teach. As life-long learners, which I think everyone is and should strive to be, I hope we have the capacity to seek out individual strengths and learn from them.

For example, if you can read this, you are proving that your school teachers, home teachers, and world teachers taught you the most important of skills – how to read. It took more than one person, more than one day, and more than one experience for you to read your name, read a book, read a news article, read this post.

If you can read this, thank a teacher.

Another pretty rose

Education, On My Mind

Why I Teach

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A brief conversation took place between a former student (now a freshman in college) and myself on Facebook today. With some editing to protect privacy, it went like this:

Student – The fire alarm would go off right before I decide to go to bed.
Me – Better than right after!
Student – Suddenly a fire alarm before bed doesn’t seem so bad.

This, in a nutshell, is why I teach.

I teach to help young adults understand ideas and concepts that they wouldn’t understand without guidance. I teach to point out different perspective or different methods of examining an issue, question, or problem. I teach to push my students to think in ways that they didn’t know they could. I teach to prove to students that humans are fallible and that, as humans, they are fallible. I teach to help young people find themselves and find where they fit in the world, what they are capable of contributing, and how they can achieve their dreams. Teaching is a pleasure, a joy, and an honor.

Every so often people learn that I’m a high school teacher and tell me, “I couldn’t do what you do!” As I continuously emphasize to my students, we all play to our strengths. I would make a terrible accountant, doctor, engineer, construction worker, cashier, hairdresser, office manager, etc. None of that matters, though, because I have been told by colleagues, parents, and students that I am a “damn good teacher,” which is precisely what I want to be.

No one is good at everything but everyone is good at something. This is an aspect of life that we learn as we get older, when we realize that not everyone will end up on TV, in the movies, on the front of book jackets, or making millions. As we get older and have more experiences, we, as humans, learn to put our efforts where we feel we can be both happy and successful.

I teach in order to help my students feel comfortable with that reality.

On My Mind

‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I all I want to do right now is go home. My friends are arriving from various parts of the country to spend Thanksgiving with their families, students and teachers are off school Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to celebrate, people get together to laugh, play football, and eat delicious fall foods. It’s my favorite time of year and it’s really hard to be away from home right now.

Not much has improved at school since I wrote about the teachers who left. A week later, another cowoker left the country and went home, which was absolutely devastating because I worked very closely with him and his students. It also fell to me to tell his students (and our boss, for that matter), which made for the worst day I have ever spent in a classroom. We all cried, and I have never cried in front of students. And I don’t mean I dabbed at my eyes with a tissue; I watched the students mourn their loss, and it was terrible.

A new teacher for one of the classes showed up from Australia on Thursday, which was really exciting. She was with the students for part of the day on Friday, called in sick Monday, went home sick Tuesday, and called in sick again today, Wednesday. When I got home from the gym tonight there was a note under my door from her telling our boss that her “heart isn’t in it here.”

That was quick. (Guess it’s my job to break the news again.)

That should also give you a good idea of how things are.

Intellectually, I know why I came and I know why I’m here. I came to teach and to learn and I’m here to teach and to learn. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, I’ve got nothing. Mitch and I gave up a lot to move to Malaysia so I could try out teaching at an international school. We were talking very seriously about The Question, talking about a buying a house, talking about what we wanted out of life.

I can’t regret coming to Malaysia because I believe it was the right idea at the time, but there are days when I yearn to go back in time and change it all.