A New School Year!

Hi Everyone! (okay, "Hi" to the 2 or 3 that have stumbled upon this, likely by mistake)

I am three weeks into a new school year, my 15th year teaching. It got me to thinking about what I like or dislike about teaching. What I like is easy and is a longer list than the negatives. What I like is lesson planning, most of the kids.. their smiles, their questions, their work, their enthusiasm.

And then there is the not so good and this makes me think teaching has turned me (almost) into a pessimist. Of the forty or so students in my class (mainly 9th graders), 36 or so will be "on" and tuned in, and trying. It's the 4-5 kids per class that don't really seem to get it. Their "sins" include tardiness, surliness, no pencil, or paper, or backpack, sleeping in class, drawing on their desks-books-(borrowed) paper-their arm/hands...

I look at a glass and say it's half-full, no problem. I am a hopeful person, even when a student's history or past performance suggests otherwise.

There is a story in the Bible of the old woman who loses a single coin. She drops everything until she finds it - like another story in the Bible about the (single) lost sheep. And therein lies the problem - I want EVERY ONE of my students to succeed. I should be grateful that 90% of them are trying, but I am always troubled by those 1 or 2, or 3 or 4 in a class who are in danger of.... dropping out, drugs, crime, suffering, suicide, etc.

I don't have a solution, but I am quick to encourage those rare days when a student who hasn't done any work in days (or weeks) surprisingly does work in my class on a particular day. I say something hopeful to reinforce it but I know that whatever caused them to "wake-up" and participate is unfortunately many times short-lived.