I know I can get pretty negative on here. Heck, my last blog post was about how education system is feeling more like an entertainment gig than an actual teaching job.
And the thing is…there’s some reason for that. Ask any teacher in the United States right now. Teaching is hard, and it’s only gotten more difficult with this pandemic. There are a lot of issues that really need to be addressed that just…aren’t.
Hence, negativity.
But there is one subject about teaching I remain optimistic. It’s the part about teaching that keeps me going, that makes me genuinely enjoy doing what I do.
The students.
Honestly, every teacher I respect feels this way: the job might suck, but the students don’t. Sure, students can be a challenge, whether they’re itty-bitty elementary kiddos or tall, surly teenagers. But I guarantee you that for every unhappy bureaucratic story a teacher has, we have a dozen happy student stories. So for once, I thought I’d do a change of pace and share some happy stories about my students from this year.
The Bookworm
Since I teach in a hybrid model, and so I do have some students who are coming on to campus face-to-face and some who are arriving virtually. Some students are both, depending on the day and whether they actually want to physically come to school or not (I teach high schoolers, so they have a little more freedom in that regard).
I have yet to see this one child without a book. Coming physically to class? She’s got a book in her hands. Showing up virtually? Her background is literally artwork of a mystical library. I swear this child comes to class with a different book every week.
Now, am I, the ESL English teacher, going to complain about a child reading all the time?
Absolutely not.
The best part is that she’s started to open up and ask me about books. What are my favorite books? Did I like this one book? Have I heard of this one author? She has a running list of books in a journal that she keeps of all the things she wants to read, and plans to read them all in both Spanish (her native language) and English.
Bookworms are awesome.
The Yoshi
Times are different from when I was in school (boy did I make myself sound old writing that…and I’m not even 30 yet!). Back then, if a student came to school with hair that was dyed in unnatural colors, they would get sent home. No blue, no green, and certainly no neon pink. Now, that’s not really a thing (at least in my area, dress code has been less of a big deal so long as your clothes are decent and not filled with holes).
Now, keep in mind that many of my virtual students absolutely refuse to turn their cameras on, and I’m not evil and so I don’t yell at them about it. So if a student is consistently turning their camera on…I tend to notice.
This particular child is one such student, and on day one I noticed them because they had rich green hair. It was really cool! I pointed out how nifty it was, and the student seemed happy that I wasn’t perturbed or weirded out by it.
A few days later, their hair was a deep blue color.
A few days after that, it was neon pink.
After about a dozen different hair color changes over the course of a few months, I had to ask: why change your hair color all the time. I was not expecting the response:
“I like Yoshi and just enjoy change it to a different one.”
For those of you who are unaware, Yoshi is a character in the Mario video games (pictured above). It can appear in all sorts of different shades. This student just really likes Yoshi (I’ve since found out that they have a Yoshi-styled backpack, too!), and just wanted to mimic all the different colors a Yoshi can come in.
Fun!
In truth…
All of my students are great. They always are.
For all the challenges we teachers are facing this school year, students are facing even more. Virtual, hybrid, or even in-person education isn’t easy for them – education never has been. And yet, day after day, I see these kids show up and try. Some of them are working jobs to support their families. Most of them are dealing with some level of burnout or depression. Yet they’re still showing up.
The day I don’t recognize them for the awesome human beings they are is the day I should no longer be a teacher.
Jacob Ryckman 