I'm in love with teaching Fourth Grade. In LOVE with it. Tomorrow is the last day, and I'm almost in tears thinking about it.
Tomorrow my teaching partner and I are going to be receiving notes from our class that they wrote to us to say thank you and goodbye and whatnot. One student in particular couldn't wait until tomorrow to give me his note.
About this student: Long story short, we were informed that principals, teachers, etc. were aware of the behavior of this student. My mentor teacher informed us that she couldn't get this child to do a single thing. He was misbehaved and a bully. So, we tried the "teacher tricks" that we're taught in our classes to try to get him to behave as he should-- proximity, positive reinforcement of him and his peers, etc. After a couple of days, I was giving him another compliment and he said "Look. I know what you're doing. I know how adults work. I know that you come stand by me when you want me doing my work. I know that you compliment others when you want me to be doing that same thing. I know that you compliment me when you want me to feel good about myself. I know your teacher tricks. I know how you adults work. It's NOT going to work on me." I sat there, speechless. WHAT do you even say to that??
The next day, we revamped our strategy. He wanted to be treated as an equal, not talked down to. He could tell when we genuinely cared about him, and when we were giving him empty reinforcement. He wanted to be truly loved. So, that's what we did. Over the next couple of weeks, we could not BELIEVE the changes he was making. He was quiet. He was on task. He was nice to us and wasn't causing problems with others. My mentor teacher could NOT believe how much different he was. It was incredible.
He gave me his card today. It was in the shape of a paper airplane, per usual of this student. On the front, it had things like "Your Awesome!" and "You ROCK!" Inside, he had drawn a picture of me, smiling. A spitting image, I must say. It then said Dear Miss D, Thanks for teaching us this year. Especially playing football with us. I hope you come here to teach sense your awesome. Oh ya, and your WAY the nicest and funniest teacher ever. Your the best and Number 1 teacher out of all the teachers that have ever come into my life."
Seriously, I'm not even an emotional person, but I can't believe how much that little note touched my heart so deeply. This child, who hated school, hated learning and hated teachers, but who is an INCREDIBLY bright and sweet little boy, had had a change of heart.
I know I'm doing the right thing with my life.
