A VERY long SHORT week

As mentioned in my blog below, I returned to work this week after being off for 10 days. I knew I would be unable to blog as much due to my busier schedule, and I was not kidding. I didn't blog at all. I had off Monday, so it was a short week, but it was SO long. I had two days over 15 hours long EACH, not getting myself home after close to 10 p.m. each night. This is NOT the way I like to spend my week. I missed eating dinner with the family, watching the Olympics, and just hanging out. Luckily, not every week is this time intensive.

After this crazy week, however, I was imspired by a story shared by one of my teacher friends. It certainly puts in perspective why we continue to teach. I love this story and was so glad she shared it. Let's call it,



THE BIG APPLAUSE

Despite pink slips, pay cuts, furlough days, cuts in benefits, DAIT, DAW, and other not so appealing parts of being a teacher right now, one great thing about it stands out... my students! I love them!

Today I had the pleasure of watching how wonderful, smart, and awesome children can be. We are working on multiplying greater numbers, not very easy for a third grader, especially when they are first learning how. I taught them a few different ways to solve the problems this week, so today students were coming to the board to demonstrate which way they liked solving the problem.

After a few students, mostly my high achieving students who can do anything, came and showed their skills, one of my RSP (Special Education) students raised his hand and asked if he could have a turn. I said sure, and I could see that my other students looked a little worried because only the "smart" kids had volunteered to come up. Now, I knew he could do it with my help, but I was a little worried he might crack under the pressure of being up there in front of all his classmates by himself. I am very proud to say that this student came to the board, showed every step, and solved the problem perfectly.

But, the best part was watching the faces of my other students as they watched him do it, I watched as their mouths fell open and they began to whisper to each other about how "smart" this student was as he solved the problem correctly step by step. They were truly amazed. Then as he turned to walk form the board, my entire class broke out in a loud applause. They are such caring kids, proud of their classmate, and I was very proud of them all!

Now, that sounded like the end of my story, but my favorite part is yet to come, and this is better than solving a math problem correctly! After the student sat down, the next kid came up and solved his problem correctly. Then the same RSP student, who had just received applause, stood up and started clapping for his classmate and turned around and said, "Come on guys! We have to clap. He did it!" The reason this is such a big deal you may ask? Aside from academic disabilities, this student rarely recognizes, interacts with, or pays attention to any other students. So, yes, solving a math problem is great, but for him to recognize another student's accomplishments is amazing, pretty much a miracle!

I love my job!