I'm not going to lie.
Teaching at a High School is really an adventure, mentally and physically.
In an effort to remind myself where my students are at psychologically I re-read my diary from when I was 14. Holy. Hannah.
My own life from 14-18 was, well, odd at best. Despite that I was struck by how hilarious my own history has been. Was it the "NKOTB Forever!!!" or "If I don't get to go out with Adam I'll JUST DIE!!!!" or perhaps the "My dad doesn't know anything! I'm 14, geez! I think I understand sOmEthIng about life and people!" that most shaped me into the person I am today?
In honor of being almost 1/4 of the way through my first, chaotic, emotional, sleep deprived year of teaching I offer the following:
10. Crying in the bathroom for an entire hour during Senior Prom because my date wouldn't give me even 3 inches of personal space and I snapped.
9. "Vid" and his pet tire, drug around the school on a rope.
8. Coloring on the sidewalks with chalk at lunch - which the school promptly painted over despite the impending afternoon rainstorm that would have washed it all away. Ironic that they let the crayon drawings stay (that one wasn't me btw).
7. The "goth" phase. Oh mercy, the goth phase. Lets leave that one a distant memory.
6. Getting sent to the Principal's office, only once, but at a school I didn't attend. I couldn't help it, really. We had open campus, didn't everyone? Somehow the loads of "No Trespassing" signs and Dick Tracy the Parking attendant didn't quite convince me that visiting friends at lunch was a bad idea.
5. Leading the Marching Band in the homecoming parade when my shoes were too small and I almost tripped flat on my face, or derriere actually, going backwards at way too high a speed for my squatty legs.
4. Another school parade when the Environmental Club won for best float! Jess and I sat atop the car on opposite sides of a paper mache Earth suspended above a garbage can with wire. We held a sign that said "Don't throw it all away" while some other club members threw "garbage" out the back of the car and others picked it up and put it into bags with recycle logos on them. We won a pizza party for that one. Darn tasty too, I might add.
3. Going to the Montezuma exhibit at the Denver Museum of Natural History (which has since undergone a slight identity crisis) with the Spanish club, despite the fact that I took French and didn't understand a thing they said.
2. Brian trying to prove to the administration that saggy pants were not a health and safety hazard, wearing his pants as big as he could find them, then falling FLAT on his face headed up the stairs.
My #1 High School memory?
1. The kid (who shall remain nameless) that I was totally IN LOVE WITH sticking his head out the door of his Spanish class and singing "Pretty woman walking down the hall." Ahhhh...... the tingles. To this day we are in brief contact but he will NEVER know that I strategically walked that hall every day hoping to catch a glimpse of him through an open door. Unless he happens to read this, and then he will. Oh bother.
So what did I learn from this list?
As a teacher I let my life get sucked away by feeling that every single thing I say and do helps my students become the people they are going to grow up to be. And I think there is some truth to that. Somewhere in the middle of this list lies the individuals who helped pull me through some of the toughest years of my life - when survival was all I could think about. But they aren't the things I remember unless I look for them. The kids? They are likely not going to remember the dumb things I say, my lame jokes, or the NPR Science updates I make them listen to. They aren't going to remember the lessons I spend sometimes 20 hours prepping, or the PowerPoints that so perfectly convey the heart of the state core.
What they are going to remember is their friends. The moments that in their young lives are more important than anything. An ability to correctly diagram the life cycle of an average star or predict the next Lunar eclipse is nice, but it isn't going to make them better or worse as people.
Remind me of this after our test on Monday please.
Posts
3 comments:
I remember my 9th grade earth science(that's what we call geology here) very well!!
Actually I remember every teacher that challenged me and the ones that spent extra time helping me learn something I didn't understand. Don't underestimate your value :)
I love your list,esp. number one !!
I think about myself at that age and I don't know how you do it! I am sure you are an amazing teacher.
Ah, the strategic walks to catch a glimpse of that good looking boy! Only mine was just "happening" to drop in and talk to my English teacher EVERY day after school in the hopes that his gorgeous aide with the dark brown hair and chocolaty eyes(whom I also had English with earlier in the day) would walk with me to the hall . . . or at least TALK to me. And did I mention this also netted me my first kiss? Although admittedly, it was right in front of that same English teacher, lol!!
Post a Comment