The end of the school year is a hard time for me. Each year I meet a new group of students and get to form relationships with them. One of my co-workers has been preaching for a couple years about how the key to successful teaching is forming relationships. With this in mind, I have made an even more concerted effort this school year and I think it worked well. I open myself to my students in a lot of way that other teachers do not. I talk to them about non-school things during class (which is pretty common), I friend with them on Facebook if they request, and I allow them to text me. (Mind you I have only ever kind of given my number to my bowlers, but the number seems to get around.)
A lot of teachers would be uncomfortable with some of these avenues, but for me I truly believe that it has made my teaching more effective, (Research would seem to agree, Link 1, Link 2.) and it is the only way I know how to be. Many times I would see something on Facebook that I could discuss with the students during class the next day to build those connections, or a student would see something I posted about myself or Isaac and then we could use that to build a connection in class. I try to tell myself each year that I am not going to get as close to the students, but I can’t do it. I love teaching and I love it because of the students I get to meet. They change me for the better and hopefully the opposite is true. When the days are tough and I need a break from teaching, the kids are what get me up in the morning and keep me going. If I didn’t have a strong relationship with the students, I wouldn’t enjoy my job nearly as much. I wouldn’t know how to teach any other way.
On Scrubs Dr. Cox says he teaches through fear, but I can’t do that. I have too much fun being a goof with kids and interacting with them. Each day I am not sure what is going to happen in class, but it usually results in us laughing and having a good time. I’ve always believed that I can get more out of the students if they like me and want to work in class for me, if not for physics. Some people yell to manage their classes, but I like to use my relationship with the kids to manage the classroom.
Anyway, the point is that I formed some pretty strong relationships my students this year. I wouldn’t say it was with every student, but on the whole I felt closer to my students this year than any year in the past. One of my big fears in teaching had been that as I got older, I’m 29 now, I would start to lose touch with the students. I have actually found now that the opposite is true. This year I have found that more students have talked to me in an advice type sense than any other year. So, while my relationship with students is different than it was when I started teaching, I find that I am enjoying the new role I am in.
So, now the end of the year comes and I have to say good-bye to these wonderful young people. I do not know why this is so hard for me each year. Part of my says I only see these kids for 44 minutes a day for 180 days this shouldn’t be this hard. But, even knowing that, I feel a void when they leave. The truth of the matter is I see a lot of these kids more than that. Some come in for help, some come by to hang out, and some I just see other times. I love how things go for the first 9 months of the year, but the last week or so is just really depressing. I often refer to it as Post-Prom Depression. It is a rough week because the kids are stressed out and cranky because they are going through a bunch of emotions with high school ending and their teachers piling on projects. I have to battle with them to stay on task because they have senioritis yet I have to be the responsible one. At the same time I just want to hang out with them because they are going to be gone soon. This really makes closure tough to come by.
I try to do somethings to get closure. I give them a little speech with a couple of simple pieces of advice. Then I teach them how to tie a neck-tie. This year I started a new tradition by doing something that my high school calculus teacher Mrs. Courtney O’Berry did that was very memorable for me: I read them Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. This was received well and I liked it.
Anyway, I am not really sure what I wanted out of this post. Mostly I just felt like I needed to get some thoughts off of my mind. I love teaching and interacting with students and I would never conduct myself in any other way than fully committed to building relationships with students. This year in particular I have grown particularly close to two students and they have helped me grow as a teacher and as a parent. They may never know they affect they have had on me just like I will never know the effect I have had on many students. I recently read a quote, The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit. I don’t really like quoting other people, but this really sums up what I believe in a very elegant statement. I guess the hardest part is never knowing if the things I do on a daily basis have a positive lasting impact.
18 March — Today I gave a test over uniform circular. The test seemed to be well constructed as pretty much all of the students finished on time and no one yelled at me. Yeah!
19 March — We started the electrostatics chapter today. This chapter can be full of many unintended innapropriate phrases. Today, for instance, I legitimately said to a group, “make sure you rub those balls to get them ready for the next group.” They started laughing and then I realized what I said. Good stuff.
When I watch a video like this (I have seen similar one before) I feel extremely overwhelmed. The amount of knowledge and information out there is so huge. I find myself constantly saying that the combined knowledge of the world is at our fingertips and we just need to start taking advantage of it. Look at the growth of Facebook, and that was primarily with college students. Also, Facebook was free and televisions weren’t but those number are still huge.Now, I wonder if Twitter is going to beat that to be biggest fastest.
That there are more texts sent each day then people in the world, Holy Cow! Adults often just mock the younger generation and their texting, but to ignore the phenomenon is just ignorant. The Technology Tailor on WGN Radio, Alex Goldstein (or something like that) constantly mocks Continue Reading…
So, if you were tagged, you are supposed to write your own list and tag 25 people including the person who tagged you. I say, do what you like.
I love teaching. However, it is way more work than I ever imagined it would be and I have a tremendous amount more respect for the good teachers I have had.
I love being a parent, but it is way more work that I ever imagined it would be (people always tell you it will be hard, and I beleived them, but you don’t know until you are there yourself.) I have a tremendous amount more respect for my parents now that I have a son.
I love Star Wars. I don’t know why. I know it (probably) isn’t real but the pageantry and the grandeur and the philosophy of it all is just so mesmerizing. It truly is an Oprah.
I have ADD and probably have my whole life. I was not officially diagnosed until I was 23, and knowing that I have it makes it easier as a teacher to deal with students who also have ADD (even if they don’t know they have it.) I also take drugs for ADD and, at least for me, they work.
I do not currently have a job next year and this weighs on me more than I let on or want to think about.
All I really want out of life is to do something that matters. I don’t know what that will be and I don’t know if I will know what it is (it may already have happened) but I will keep working at it until I die.
My son is named for Sir Isaac Newton (perhaps the single most important person of the millennium) and I think this is awesome and I don’t know if Gina will ever truly appreciate how much I appreciate and love her for allowing that. Continue Reading…
Today’s circular motion lab went pretty well. I tried to let the students work on figuring out the procedure and what to do and after some initial insecurity and confusion they got the idea without too much help from me and it pleased me.
Today’s good thing was a student sending me a condolonce note that the bowling team will most likely be cut next year. This was a very sweet gesture, and it made my night.
So, as many of you know, all of the 1st – 4th year teachers in Lake Zurich have been told that they will have no job next year. This is the case because the school board is anticipating a 4 million dollar deficit next year and they are releasing as many teachers as possible so that they can have flexibility when they start cutting programs and increasing class sizes. I get this policy on some levels, but it leaves me in a bad place. I just wish they would have taken the time to be a little more thoughtful about the process. Half of the science staff had been let go and I can’t imagine that was necessary.
What really makes me sad is that I am now going to have to go out and apply for jobs. When I am offered one of those jobs in the next few months, I am going to have to take because I need a job in order to take care of my family. So, won’t be able to tell a job that is guaranteed to me to wait until LZ figures it out in April, May, or even June. This really starts to get to me because of the time and effort and really parts of myself I have given to that job. I don’t work at half speed and I really have put myself into that job and I feel like I have been dumped.
But, in all honesty, the part that makes me the most sad (I actually even cried a little because I was so sad) is that I will most likely not get to see the bowling team through next year. I always told myself that minimally I was going to see one class through bowling to try and get the program established and then decide what I wanted to do. I got lucky and the group I have right now is amazing. I never thoght I would feel this close to a group of students, but then, BAM, it happened. There are times when I want to wring some of the necks, but I am really going to miss the fun times we have had.
I really worry that when I get to my new job, that I am going to be relunctant to get that attached to the people there. I hope I don’t end up that way, but that is how I feel right now. I felt like I finally found a district where I had a place and role. I was coaching, teaching, working with technology and then the rug got pulled out from under me. I would like to think that I will be back there next year, but I have no idea and have to proceed as such.
There are people who are worse off than me in this situation, and I wish the district could have gotten their money right the past couple years so that they would have had the reserves in place to handle this. Oh well…
Summer has begun and it is a little boring. I went to camp for a week which was nice. I did a lot of manual labor and came back 5 pounds heavier. I am telling myself it is muscle, but I ate a lot of food while I was there, so I’m not so sure. I actually bought new shows yesterday which is rare for me. They are of the slip on variety with no laces. Something new for me, but a fun little change.
While at camp I did a lot of hiking and some alone thinking and I am really being eaten up inside that I really pissed off a friend and I don’t know how to make things better. I am mailing a card now to that effect, we’ll see.
Next week I am off to my physics conference for 3 weeks with sweet, sweet dorm food. I get to learn about teaching physics using models. I don’t fully know what that means, but it is supposed to be pretty sweet. Then I return and football camp starts and then it is downhill until school starts up.
I am supposed to study for my GRE some time this summer, but I have been pushing that off. I guess it has only been 2 weeks since school ended, but it is going to fly past. Although, after this physics thing, I have very little else to do.
