What do you do when two BIG boys start a full on fist-fight in your class?
What do you do when boys say provocative comments to their teacher in Spanish?
What do you do when a mother emails you and states that her son now wants to go and get drunk due to the fun time he had participating in a drunk goggles activity in your class AFTER you spent an entire week talking about the negative effects of alcohol?
What do you do when you're in the middle of teaching the grieving process and a girl raises her hand and says her dad died the day before due to a heroin o.d. and you find out she's dead serious?
What do you do when a parent shows up at parent teacher conferences and is a total crack head- literally?
What do you do when you're sitting in an IEP meeting and a parent asks you what a fraction is?
What do you do when you find a note being passed between a 12-year old girl and boy which talks about how good it was to be in bed together until 6 am?
What do you do when a student asks for you to do her laundry because her family has no washer and dryer and kids are making fun of her stinky clothes?
What do you do when you find out your 13 year old student ran away with her 25 year old boyfriend because he got her pregnant?!
What do you do when you call home to talk to your worst student's parents and all you get is no hablo ingles?
What do you do when you find out your student's address is listed as "Utah Lake" because his/her family is homeless and they live in their car?
Maybe you become clueless like me but YOU ALSO BECOME SO GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE.
Teaching in Provo, UT has been nothing of what I expected. It has had its ups and downs and unfortunately I feel like lately I've been focusing on the negative side to my job. Unfortunately a billion good things can happen in a day but when I talk on the phone to my mom at night, or come home and tell Caleb about my day, I tend to focus on the one negative part of my day. I have a lot of disrespectful boys who behave unlike anything I have ever seen in my entire life. And I don't know what to do with them. Despite these boys, I can honestly say I love teaching. Today I taught a lesson about how people can choose to be a "Tigger" or an "Eeyore" in life. My mom has always encouraged me to be a Tigger in life and for the last forty days of my teaching career (yep, pretty sure these will be my last forty days of standing in a 7th grade classroom and teaching all day, definitely bitter-sweet... but I'll talk about that later) I am going to focus on the positive, because there really is a lot of positive that has come from me being a teacher and when all is said and done, it's the happy moments I want to remember... thus I am writing about these experiences. When the boys do behave in my class and speak a language I can understand, there is something magical that happens in my classroom. Despite a lot of my students not being members, I feel like the spirit has been in my classroom on several occasions. My mom reminds me constantly that everything I teach to my students follows right a long with gospel principles, so of course I will have the spirit to help lead and guide me with what to teach. I love getting notes from students which state they were able to get their dad to cut their alcohol or tobacco addiction because they went home and told their fathers to buck up. I love when a student sends me a note stating that I have been like a big sister to her this year (lucky for me, she has been in three classes of mine) and I have changed her life in ways I'll never know. I love reading my student's bucket lists and realizing they understand their lives can one day be better, and I may have partially helped them realize that. I will never forget how my students see me in the hall and run up to give me a hug and then find out that is the only hug they've gotten that week. I loved opening up my Christmas present from Maria. It was a dried flower and she wrote a note saying she wished she had more to give but that's all she had. It caught me dead in my tracks last holiday season and I love her for what she has to go through everyday. I wish I could take her home with me. And perhaps the one moment I will never ever forget deals with parent teacher conferences. It was towards the end of the night and a mother showed up all alone. I could tell she was tired and stressed. She told me she was Mercedes' mom, and as soon as she told me who she was I replied and told her Mercedes is a lovely girl and I have loved having her in my class. I told her there is something special about Mercedes and I feel like she has taught me more than I have taught her and am a very lucky teacher to have her in my class. I told her Mercedes is always on my mind and I try really hard to put a smile on her face and make her happy. (Mercedes had just moved to DMS a few months prior to this experience. She was living with her dad in Florida when he unexpectedly died. She was then forced to come to Utah to live with her mother and she was having such a hard time with life.) The mother broke down right then and there and mumbled a thank you. She told me I was the only teacher who knew Mercedes' story because I cared enough to ask. She also told me I was sometimes the only person who would have a personal conversation with Mercedes at school. Seriously?! This moment made everything worth it and I broke down then and there too- which doesn't happen a lot. I hugged the mom and told her she doesn't need to thank me, but I needed to thank her. I will take 200 crazy boys any day if I get to teach even just one Mercedes. Remember when I talked about how my life's mission as a teacher was to make a difference? Mercedes is my hero and I will never forget her.
At Thanksgiving dinner last year we all went around and did the traditional grateful speech. I said I was grateful for my 5th period that came in right after my 4th period. 5th Period reminded me on a daily basis why I actually became a teacher... to teach, not to babysit. This semester I'd say the same thing about 7th period. They are my saving grace to my 6th period. Unfortunately 6th period has seen a side to me that I did not know existed deep down inside of me. Luckily I do have some respectful people in 6th period and they try to make me feel better about my job. Just like me, their mouths drop wide open when the boys behave in the way that they do, and the girls feel for me as a teacher having to deal with the crazy boys. A girl wrote this poem and gave it to me this week... it was everything and more that I needed this week.
What do you do when boys say provocative comments to their teacher in Spanish?
What do you do when a mother emails you and states that her son now wants to go and get drunk due to the fun time he had participating in a drunk goggles activity in your class AFTER you spent an entire week talking about the negative effects of alcohol?
What do you do when you're in the middle of teaching the grieving process and a girl raises her hand and says her dad died the day before due to a heroin o.d. and you find out she's dead serious?
What do you do when a parent shows up at parent teacher conferences and is a total crack head- literally?
What do you do when you're sitting in an IEP meeting and a parent asks you what a fraction is?
What do you do when you find a note being passed between a 12-year old girl and boy which talks about how good it was to be in bed together until 6 am?
What do you do when a student asks for you to do her laundry because her family has no washer and dryer and kids are making fun of her stinky clothes?
What do you do when you find out your 13 year old student ran away with her 25 year old boyfriend because he got her pregnant?!
What do you do when you call home to talk to your worst student's parents and all you get is no hablo ingles?
What do you do when you find out your student's address is listed as "Utah Lake" because his/her family is homeless and they live in their car?
Maybe you become clueless like me but YOU ALSO BECOME SO GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE.
Teaching in Provo, UT has been nothing of what I expected. It has had its ups and downs and unfortunately I feel like lately I've been focusing on the negative side to my job. Unfortunately a billion good things can happen in a day but when I talk on the phone to my mom at night, or come home and tell Caleb about my day, I tend to focus on the one negative part of my day. I have a lot of disrespectful boys who behave unlike anything I have ever seen in my entire life. And I don't know what to do with them. Despite these boys, I can honestly say I love teaching. Today I taught a lesson about how people can choose to be a "Tigger" or an "Eeyore" in life. My mom has always encouraged me to be a Tigger in life and for the last forty days of my teaching career (yep, pretty sure these will be my last forty days of standing in a 7th grade classroom and teaching all day, definitely bitter-sweet... but I'll talk about that later) I am going to focus on the positive, because there really is a lot of positive that has come from me being a teacher and when all is said and done, it's the happy moments I want to remember... thus I am writing about these experiences. When the boys do behave in my class and speak a language I can understand, there is something magical that happens in my classroom. Despite a lot of my students not being members, I feel like the spirit has been in my classroom on several occasions. My mom reminds me constantly that everything I teach to my students follows right a long with gospel principles, so of course I will have the spirit to help lead and guide me with what to teach. I love getting notes from students which state they were able to get their dad to cut their alcohol or tobacco addiction because they went home and told their fathers to buck up. I love when a student sends me a note stating that I have been like a big sister to her this year (lucky for me, she has been in three classes of mine) and I have changed her life in ways I'll never know. I love reading my student's bucket lists and realizing they understand their lives can one day be better, and I may have partially helped them realize that. I will never forget how my students see me in the hall and run up to give me a hug and then find out that is the only hug they've gotten that week. I loved opening up my Christmas present from Maria. It was a dried flower and she wrote a note saying she wished she had more to give but that's all she had. It caught me dead in my tracks last holiday season and I love her for what she has to go through everyday. I wish I could take her home with me. And perhaps the one moment I will never ever forget deals with parent teacher conferences. It was towards the end of the night and a mother showed up all alone. I could tell she was tired and stressed. She told me she was Mercedes' mom, and as soon as she told me who she was I replied and told her Mercedes is a lovely girl and I have loved having her in my class. I told her there is something special about Mercedes and I feel like she has taught me more than I have taught her and am a very lucky teacher to have her in my class. I told her Mercedes is always on my mind and I try really hard to put a smile on her face and make her happy. (Mercedes had just moved to DMS a few months prior to this experience. She was living with her dad in Florida when he unexpectedly died. She was then forced to come to Utah to live with her mother and she was having such a hard time with life.) The mother broke down right then and there and mumbled a thank you. She told me I was the only teacher who knew Mercedes' story because I cared enough to ask. She also told me I was sometimes the only person who would have a personal conversation with Mercedes at school. Seriously?! This moment made everything worth it and I broke down then and there too- which doesn't happen a lot. I hugged the mom and told her she doesn't need to thank me, but I needed to thank her. I will take 200 crazy boys any day if I get to teach even just one Mercedes. Remember when I talked about how my life's mission as a teacher was to make a difference? Mercedes is my hero and I will never forget her.
At Thanksgiving dinner last year we all went around and did the traditional grateful speech. I said I was grateful for my 5th period that came in right after my 4th period. 5th Period reminded me on a daily basis why I actually became a teacher... to teach, not to babysit. This semester I'd say the same thing about 7th period. They are my saving grace to my 6th period. Unfortunately 6th period has seen a side to me that I did not know existed deep down inside of me. Luckily I do have some respectful people in 6th period and they try to make me feel better about my job. Just like me, their mouths drop wide open when the boys behave in the way that they do, and the girls feel for me as a teacher having to deal with the crazy boys. A girl wrote this poem and gave it to me this week... it was everything and more that I needed this week.
Mrs. Perkins is the best, Mrs. Perkins is better than the rest.
She is a heath teacher of mine, lucky for me she is one of a kind.
She is kind of a push over and a bit of a softie, but in the end is awesome like Rockie.
Sure some days she may be snappy but other than that most of the time she is happy.
Mrs. Perkins runs track like me, she runs track which fills me with glee.
She may have stress but that's because sixth period's a mess. (Charlie, Gerardo, Kevin V., other Kev V., ANGEL, Jorge, Francisco, Elesvan, Jesus, Roberto, Demetrio, Augustine, and yes sometimes even me...)
We're not the best but she is nice and the respect she gives us comes at no price.
She is tired of kids telling her what to do (Alexis) and I know sometimes she wants to hit them with her shoe- which are always hot by the way.
Well anyway, i just wrote this to say I hope this makes Mrs. Perkins' day!
Yes Jaelyn, this made my day. Here's to the good, not the bad. I will forever be a better person because of my experience this year...
10 comments:
Love your post!! I have all the same feelings :) That's why I love 7th graders; they still write notes to their teacher haha Hang in there and when you're done I'm taking you out to celebrate a full year of teaching and our official teacher induction.
LARS! I read this and cried! I can totally imagine you being a amazing teacher.. and you are! Those kids are so lucky to have you! Seriously. They are.
So beautifully put. I love you and the example you have been to me this year. Love ya sis!
wow...
I love you!
I think only a person as sweet and amazing as you could do that!You're such a wonderful person.
Love ya!
holy smokes, what an amazing learning experience. that poem is soo cute.
YES! Your post made my day! I've become a blog checking freak lately and nobody has posted forever, it was driving me nuts! (this is Luke by the way).
Besides that though, I'm very impressed with you having to handle all sorts of crazy situations but still being able to see the good in it all and cherish those amazing moments. That's so awesome!
Good luck on the home stretch!
Luke. Andrea too.
Wow, Lauren you are making such a difference in so many kids lives. I'm sorry you have to take all of the bad with the good, but the good you are getting is so sweet! Holy cow, someone wrote a poem about you!!! Love you and your "tigger" attitude, it is contagious, and I am grateful for that.
Lauren! That post was so sweet! You are awesome and I guarantee those students will always remember you! You are one of the teachers that everyone will look back on and be grateful you were in their life. I know I am! :) Love ya and it was so fun seeing you last week!
Lauren this post is amazing! It totally made me so grateful for the life I have and so grateful for people like you! You are an amazing teacher and these kids are so lucky to have you!! Thank you so much for sharing this.
Luv ya
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