Week 11: Celebrate the Successes

A lot of days in teaching are filled with tired eyes and snoozed alarms and claw clips, lots and lots of claw clips. The claw clips hide the bed head and the fact you haven't had time to wash your hair for 3 days. A lot of days also accompany this feeling of ingratitude and you wonder, "Does anyone even care?" Do the students in my classroom care about that lesson I spent hours creating, or that handout I perfectly designed? What about the nice PowerPoint and the organized Canvas modules? Do they care if the standards and agenda are posted for them to see each day? They never say thank you for those things and tend to leave the handout at their desk and arrive after I go through the learning objectives and agenda. They ask "What did I miss?" so many times that I wonder if they see the Canvas modules or know that Canvas exists at times. All of this combines together to create a paragraph of teacher tangent that you're probably as exhausted reading as I am typing. So when the wins come--- the successes fall into the same week all at once--- you MUST talk about them.

On Tuesday, we began a new unit. A challenging unit. We are reading Leviathan and old historical documents and yuck yuck yuck yuck. I was so worried that my students would be as bored as I am reading these documents and that I would struggle to find a way to make the readings fun and interesting. But on Tuesday our discussions went so well and that followed into the rest of the week. We were talking about big ideas, like human nature and the need for a leader and commonwealth. Their energy and knowledge made me excited to read the texts for this unit. I also found joy when I saw that as I modeled for them how to approach these challenging texts my teaching seemed to be helping. They were starting to apply the same approach and tackled Leviathan head-on. Their responses to the text were insightful and, ultimately, relieving. 

On Wednesday, I attended the English Department Banquet and received an award for Student Teacher of the Year. It was a HUGE honor and I felt like all my efforts hadn't gone completely unseen. I had the chance to see all of my wonderful professors and build even more lasting connections with them. I left with my heart swelled with joy for my BYU education and the opportunity to learn from so many caring educators over the years. 

On Friday, it's a small victory but the University of Kentucky won their first game in the NCAA tournament. It is rare now that I feel connected to home and my roots, but cheering on the Cats that evening made me so grateful for where I come from. Every time I reflect back on my hometown with a population of 1300 and 99% white/caucasian, I am in awe of my life now. I teach a classroom that is made up of 43% students of color and live in a city that has 5000 people per square mile. And I love it. I think my ability to adapt to such a different place than the one I am from is evidence of the compassion, heart, and education found within the town itself. 

On Saturday, my boyfriend, James, proposed. Being unmarried at the age of 24 in Provo, UT makes you feel like an old maid at times and you wonder if you're ever going to find someone that you could build a life with. Saying yes to James was one of the easiest decisions of my life and I am so blessed for his constant love and support in all I do. Every time I look at the ring on my finger I can't help but tear up a bit because it is further evidence of a God that loves me and answers my individual prayers.  

                                                                                                    

I wasn't expecting any of these wins this week. But they were so needed. I feel like in teaching we plan for the worst---we have our backup plans and our backup plans for the backup plans---but we don't plan for success. Maybe it's because it's impossible (I don't know how developed that claim is, but I believe there is some truth to it). What we can plan for is that when they come, we will be ready to welcome them with open arms and make them just as known as the days when things fall apart. 

-Ms. Gee