Proud Teaching Moments

This is my seventh year teaching and I feel as if I am really hitting my stride. I know when to give fake answers and when to say, "let's google that." I know how to use the strategy of "crop dusting" as taught by my friend Becky who used it when working as a flight attendant. I know how to tell when I'm being lied to and how to get them to confess. I know how to fall gracefully when tripping over the power cords. I know how to handle awkward moments when "slower" kids give off-the-wall, incorrect answers or when class clowns make inappropriate innuendos. I still have A LOT to learn about teaching- that's why I love this job so much- but I have come a long way in these seven years.

This past week a number of moments made me very proud. Here they are:

1. A student burst out in class, "I remembered what you taught us two years ago!" These words make teachers glow. We live for this affirmation. We long for it and crave it like Americans crave cheeseburgers. (at least this American does when she leaves the states) "They remembered. I got through to them." Sweet victory! This specific student is admittedly an overly excitable girl but school is not "her thing" so I was quite intrigued to hear about what she remembered. How to write a killer thesis? How to transition between paragraphs? Nope. She remembered and used the cheer I taught her as a freshman. What cheer you ask? The peer pressure cheer of course. You know:

Peer pressure,

peer pressure,

what does it do?

It squeezes

the Jesus

right out of you!

Totally theologically sound. I think Paul talked about it in one of his epistles. She might never remember how make the subject and verb agree in number but by gosh, she will not give into peer pressure:)

2. A graduate remembered Junior English class. A former student now in college found me at the football game and was thrilled to tell me about how Eli Wiesel is a new professor at her college. He is a Holocaust survivor and the author of Night, which I read with the Juniors. I was excited that A- she was excited and remembered the book and B- that he is so close I can go hear him speak. However, I admittedly was a bit preoccupied while she was talking because I realized I had been mispronouncing his name all along and was wondering if she remembered.

3. I made grammar fun. I don't mean to toot my horn here, but this was a major accomplishment for me. It was major because I rather despise teaching grammar and it is anything but fun. However, my love of board games was put to good use as I created an activity that involved the skills used in Scategories and Mad Libs and made it into a competition for candy. High scores got Laffy Taffy but they had to read the joke on the wrapper aloud. My favorite was "Why did the strawberry cross the road? Because he heard his mom was in a jam." Classic taffy humor. However, there was one major flaw in the game. Students had to think of unique and applicable adjectives for a bunch of nouns that I provided. Naive Katie put the noun "dream." Those of you with your minds in the gutter can imagine what the boy who loves to test his limits chose for his "applicable adjective." It was the first detention I assigned this year.

4. A wallflower shared her answer aloud without me calling on her. I had to explain the term "wallflower" to my students but I'm going to assume you know what it is. Perhaps you were this student- the one who sits in the back, speaks to no one, and never makes eye contact with the teacher for fear of getting called on. I love these kids. I make it a personal challenge to break them from their hardened shells of shyness and get them to feel so comfortable in class that they will laugh and smile and participate without me forcing them to. Last week, I broke the new girl. New to the Valley community, I can understand her hesitancy to speak up but last week....last week she knew the answer. And no one else did. I forget the question but I remember the awkward silence as students glanced around the room looking anywhere but at me. I remember looking up and seeing her eyes go wide and her lips pull upward into a smile as she announced the correct answer. We're warned not to "overpraise" but I'm pretty sure I jumped a little. And maybe peed a tiny bit. I was pretty stoked.

5. I made some of the "tough" boys cry. This is not a typical goal of mine but I was so moved when it happened. During homeroom we do daily devotions and last week I showed this music video by Matthew West. It's about how much we are loved by our creator. After watching, I told the class about this video by Francis Chan. In it he tells us to imagine the person we love the most. Then imagine them nailed to a cross. This is the kind of love that God has for us. I've heard countless sermons on the crucifixion but as I pictured my family on the cross, I could not imagine loving anyone so much I would put myself and my family through that kind of pain. Truly God's love is baffling. It makes sense why John would say: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:10) Our human love cannot compare with this divine love. I was so thankful for an increased understanding of the immensity of His love for us, for you, and for me and I was so proud to see some of my boys getting it too. This is why I teach. This is why, although I miss the public schools, I am so grateful God has me here right now.

6. The girls on my team re-evaluated their place on this planet. As a team, we are going through the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan and we watched this brief clip about our planet and galaxy. If you haven't seen it, it's 3 minutes and 12 seconds. Watch it. It will not disappoint. So after watching it, I asked my girls what thoughts were going through their minds as they watched. A common theme was, "I had no idea we were so small," and "God is way bigger than I thought." American teenagers in private schools certainly have some "entitlement" issues and have been brainwashed to believe that life is indeed, all about them. I love my girls but I see how small their view of the world is, with them at the center- I too often fall into the same trap of making life all about myself. So to watch their jaws drop and minds struggle to wrap around this idea that they are really not a big deal at all, that they play a tiny, a rather miniscule role and serve a God larger than we can imagine, this was the highlight of my day.

7. My team played harder than usual when college coaches were present. I have one player who is pretty phenomenal. She has started beating me when we play 21 although I still let her believe that "I'm going easy on her." Everyone else on the team plays just for fun. No college aspirations- they just love the game and the team. We're not super talented and we're not very hard-core. So our 7th period open gyms aren't super intense. I don't yell and girls laugh more than you'd typically expect. We have fun. But when some coaches came to watch our point guard, I didn't have to say anything to the girls, they suddenly ran faster, dove on the ball more frequently, and played more aggressively. It made me chuckle and it made me proud. It's like when the principal comes into the room and though the class had just been obnoxiously loud, they immediately switch to "perfect angel" mode and fool him every time. They never need to be told and always breathe a sigh of relief when he leaves and resume laughing, and chewing their gum, and making borderline inappropriate comments.

While I've been reveling in my "proud teaching moments," I'd be lying if I didn't confess to the equally numerous, "not so proud moments." Here are a few:

1. I spelled Caribbean on the board with two "r's." Of course I have a baby genius in that freshman class who shot his hand up to inform me of my error. How did you know that kid? Go home and play some more Halo, and quit noticing my spelling errors.

2. I'm often stumped by SAT questions. I have an international students who stays after class so I can explain SAT questions to her. The problem is, that test is hard. It was when I was in high school and it still is today. Luckily, she'll circle the right answers and I just need to explain WHY that's the right answer. I still don't know always know. It's quite humbling.

3. I made my students scour the room for my "missing" keys. I searched the trash can and lay on the ground to scan under my desk. Later I checked my desk drawer. Brilliant. I got a lot of disapproving looks, head shakes, and the next day they started in on the blonde jokes.

4. I got caught acting like an adolescent. At our basketball game on Saturday one of the girls put a rotten banana peel on my windshield. Naturally, I sought revenge. So I took the peel and snuck behind cars in the parking lot waiting for the culprit to drive by. Her window was down, my plan came to fruition and I lobbed the grimy peel right into her face and laughed with joyful glee....until I saw one of the mom's of my players walking near by shaking her head. "Kids...." she said. Ah man. This "kid" is coaching your daughter. Not such a proud moment.