each teacher can recount numerous highs and lows in their teaching career

8/19/2019 Each Teacher Can Recount Numerous Highs and Lows in Their Teaching Career

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Each teacher can recount numerous h ighs a nd lows in their teaching career. Personally,I experienced many great moments while teaching. These w ere d ays w hen I ended sohappy a nd enthusiastic t hat I knew I had selected the right profession. On the otherhand, I had d ays w here I denitely questioned teaching as a career. These were days

where the students se emed uninterested, too talkative, or even worse a blow upoccurred and nothing got accomplished.

AdsThrough my 14 years o f teaching and working in education, one event stands a bove therest as m y a bsolute best teaching experience. Through it I learned so much aboutteaching and dealing with students. My h ope is t hat the student involved was a t leastpartially c hanged for the better from the experience as I was.

I also hope that there is something in this story t hat can help inform and inspire you.

My Best Teaching Experience

Let's c all him Tyler. Tyler was a troubled student. He was e nrolled in my se nior AmericanGovernment class f ollowed the second semester by Economics. Surprising as it was tomany former teachers, he had m ade it to senior year . However, he had spent a coupleof years i n and out of full inclusion classrooms . He had numerous beh aviormanagement issues. I don't remember his exact IEP at this point, this h appened about10 years ag o, but I know that he had impulse co ntrol and a nger management issues. Hehad been su spended many, many times i n p revious year s. The previous year he hadbeen mainstreamed with a co-teacher in so me cl asses.

AdsHowever, for 12th grade , he was in my room without a co-teacher.I knew he had problems be fore the rst day. His E SE coordinator came a nd visited meduring planning week to have a talk a bout him. My st yle of teaching is su ch that I amvery stern in the beginning, allowing students to get away with very little.

I have always done this o n purpose believing that it is e asier to soften up as t he year

goes o n than get harsher. I learned this t he hard way m y rst year of teaching. I decidedthat I was n ot going to change the way I taught or interact with him in particular becauseof his i ssues.

He s at in the back row. I had never used a seating chart with students o n the rst daywhen I was j ust getting to know them. Every t ime I talked at the front of the class, I

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would a sk q uestions o f students, calling them by name. This h elped m e learn theirnames w hile getting the kids i nvolved. Unfortunately, every t ime I called on him hewould respond with a ip answer. He knew the answers w hen he listened but he didn'twant to be called on. If he g ot an answer wrong, he would get very a ngry.

About a month into the year, I was b eating my h ead against the wall trying to connectwith Tyler. I could usually g et these kids t o be involved or at the very l east to sit quietly.However, he was j ust loud a nd obnoxious.

Tyler had been in so much trouble through the years t hat it had become his m odusoperandi. He expected it and he expected his t eachers t o know about his r eferrals a ndsuspensions. For every new teacher , he'd push and push seeing what it would take toget a referral. I tried to outlast him and work t hings o ut my w ay. I had rarely foundreferrals t o be effective because students w ould return worse than before.

One particular day, Tyler was t alking while I was t eaching. In the middle of teaching Isaid in the same tone of voice, "Tyler why d on't you join our discussion instead of havingone of your own." With that, he got up from his c hair, pushed it over, and yelledsomething I can't remember other than including the words, "You B----!" Well that wasdenitely referral time . I sent him to the office with a discipline referral, and he received aweek's o ut of school suspension.Now so far you might be asking how this co uld be my best teaching experience. So far itwas a ctually o ne of my worst. I dreaded that class e very d ay. His a nger and mumbledwords under my breath were almost too much for me. The week's ou t of school

suspension was a wonderful hiatus, and we got a lot accomplished that week. However,the week so on came to an end, and I began dreading his r eturn. I knew from talking withhis o ther teachers t hat he would be back a ngrier and with a chip on his sh oulder.

I devised a plan. On the day o f his r eturn, I stood at the door waiting for him. As s oon asI saw him, I asked him to talk for a moment. He seemed unhappy to do it but agreed. Ibasically t old him that I wanted to start over with him. Further, I gave him permission thatif he felt like he was going to lose control in class he could step right outside the door fora moment to collect himself.

From that point on, Tyler was a changed student in my cl assroom. He listened, heparticipated. He was a ctually a smart child and I could nally g et to see this i n him. Heeven st opped a ght between two o ther students on e d ay. And you know the most ironicpart of it all? He never, ever used the privilege I had given him to leave the class for amoment. I believe that just giving him the power to decide for himself made all thedifference.

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At the end o f the year, he wrote me a thank you note about how good the year had beenfor him. I still have it today a nd nd it very t ouching to reread when I get stressed aboutteaching.

ConclusionIn the end, this exp erience changed me as a teacher. Students a re people who havefeelings a nd who don't want to feel cornered. They want to learn but they also want tofeel as i f they have some control over themselves. I never made assumptions a gainabout a student before they came into my cl ass. Every st udent is d ifferent; no twostudents r eact in the same way. It is o ur tasks as t eachers t o nd not only w hatmotivates e ach student to learn but also what motivates t hem to misbehave. If we canmeet them at that point and take away that motivation, we can go a long way t owards a

more effective classroom an d learning e xperience.
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each teacher can recount numerous highs and lows in their teaching career

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