On this, the final day of my service learning at Classic City High School, there was a substitute in Mrs. Johns' class. I though it was quite fitting that I would have to work with the students without the help of Mrs. Johns herself. Though there were only five students in class today, I was really glad for the chance to get to sit and talk with some of them. There were no profound moments and no epiphanies about the meaning of life, but there were small moments in which I believe the students actually appreciated my being there. Not because I was helping them with their work or giving them hints as to the next answer, but because I was someone who was still truly invested in them even when their teacher was gone.
This semester in Classic City High School has taught me so many things. There are more than I can count, and I'm sure there are many lessons so subtle I don't recall them in this moment. This environment is nothing I have ever been in before coming from a gifted ELA classroom in a middle school setting. Despite my initial inclination to pull back and stay where I'm comfortable, I believe that this is an experience that has grown and shaped me more than any other I've had thus far. What follows is a list of lessons learned through working with these students.
1. Pick your battles. Students are not always going to work exactly the way that I, as their teacher, envision. Sometimes, getting work done is more important than fighting over how that end goal is achieved. If a student asks you to go to the bathroom in the middle of a lesson, sometimes it is just better to let them go than to disrupt the entire classroom's learning.
2. Understand that what works for one student may not work for another. There were many times when I thought I had cracked the code. I'd finally figured out how to make these students get their work done, and in that moment of pride, I forgot about the nature of students. They are all entirely different. The strategy that got Student A working doesn't always work for Students B, C, and D. Also, what worked for Student A on Wednesday might not work for them again on Friday. Students are not so easily "solved."
3. Students have more to worry about than my assignments. Though the worksheet sitting in front of the students is the most important thing in my mind at the moment, many students have more pressing issues at hand. I will never forget when a student stepped out to take a phone call and came back in to announce that his uncle had passed away from a heart attack. In that moment, I couldn't be just this student's mentor in an educational sense, but had to quickly realize that working on school work and completing assignments would have to take a backseat for a little while. This student needed me to be his friend. I have, in my short educational career, forgotten about the fact that a student's life is not always about my class.
4. Students really do want to please you and they want to have fun. Today, I learned this lesson. Perhaps it was because I was considered their "teacher" for the day, but I could see that the students wanted to talk with me. They wanted to tell me about what they had seen on Instagram that morning and we even watched a view videos together once they finished their work. I could see that they wanted my attention, and we had a lot of fun talking and relaxing. Being a teacher isn't always about having a iron-grip on the students; there is plenty of room for sitting and watching funny videos.
Though this semester featured a few moments of intense frustration and many moments of confusion and hesitation, I truly feel that I am more equipped to walk into my own classroom than I would have been without it. These are students I will not forget because they taught me more than I ever dreamed.
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