Yes, this did lead to many uncomfortable situations. And it did, on occasion, lead to a student telling me something that I had to report. Which sucks. Hard. There is no worse feeling than a student that you adore screaming at you telling you they hate you and they will never trust you again. It rips your heart out, but you must remind yourself that you did your job and it was the right thing to do. No matter how much you want to curl up in a ball and die.
Thankfully, the benefits outweigh the downfalls. The upside to having the students trust you is that you become the person that they go to about all those things in their lives that makes being a teacher so amazingly awesome. Like when you find out that a student has gone through multiple bad home situations and has finally found a family that cares about them and that they feel safe with. Or when you find out that the boy who hated school and was planning on dropping out at 16 now wants to finish high school and go on to play football in college because of you. It is these small successes that make all of the emotional crap you go through getting to know your kids completely worth it.
Another great way to get to know your kids is to allow them to write what they want. You will have not only the opportunity to find out what they like, but also see just how skilled they can be in writing and how deep their thought process can go. When the kiddos actually like what they get to write about and can take it wherever they want to go with it, it is amazing the results that you end up getting.
-HOW I ENDED UP A TEACHER-
Many of you may be wondering by now (or not, and I'm just giving myself too much credit), why I chose to be a teacher. Every teacher has their reasoning for wanting to get into this hell of a profession. There's the typical, "I want to make a difference," or the "I didn't know what else to do with my degree," but then there are the ones that you know are motivated. The ones you know actually have a chance of making it through just from pure stubbornness. I'm one of those stubborn ones. My reason for becoming a teacher all stemmed from my experience as a student.
Here, let's start with the end and then jump back to the beginning. When I told my best friend (whom I have known since middle school) that I was going to become a teacher, she freaked out on me.
Thankfully, the benefits outweigh the downfalls. The upside to having the students trust you is that you become the person that they go to about all those things in their lives that makes being a teacher so amazingly awesome. Like when you find out that a student has gone through multiple bad home situations and has finally found a family that cares about them and that they feel safe with. Or when you find out that the boy who hated school and was planning on dropping out at 16 now wants to finish high school and go on to play football in college because of you. It is these small successes that make all of the emotional crap you go through getting to know your kids completely worth it.
Another great way to get to know your kids is to allow them to write what they want. You will have not only the opportunity to find out what they like, but also see just how skilled they can be in writing and how deep their thought process can go. When the kiddos actually like what they get to write about and can take it wherever they want to go with it, it is amazing the results that you end up getting.
-HOW I ENDED UP A TEACHER-
Many of you may be wondering by now (or not, and I'm just giving myself too much credit), why I chose to be a teacher. Every teacher has their reasoning for wanting to get into this hell of a profession. There's the typical, "I want to make a difference," or the "I didn't know what else to do with my degree," but then there are the ones that you know are motivated. The ones you know actually have a chance of making it through just from pure stubbornness. I'm one of those stubborn ones. My reason for becoming a teacher all stemmed from my experience as a student.
Here, let's start with the end and then jump back to the beginning. When I told my best friend (whom I have known since middle school) that I was going to become a teacher, she freaked out on me.
