Em’ pictures never lie
I think I was starting to get through to them though. By Friday I just had to give one look and things would settle down. The swearing was down to a minimum too and at least no one was throwing anything at me.
Don’t get me wrong, there were highlights and parts of the experience that I mourn for (dramatical eh?) and miss. One is when a student gave me his Chicken Soup for the Soul to read. I used it for a class activity and it really went well with the students. Another is getting to them to compose really great persuasive papers. Hearing their innovative excuses for talking in class or not getting work in on time. So much talent and potential in that class and so little incentive and motivation for learning. Granted it is summer, but school seems to be viewed as a negative that is there to hold them down and not to help them up. No respect for the teachers, the material, the books, the room, each other. But then I look around at the classroom and the fans are broken, the computers don’t work, and books from 1986 and I think, “Under these conditions, how can school be cool?”
I came in expecting the situation to be just a certain way. I’ve always thought I’d be a teacher, but now I don’t know. I wanted to touch them all, to help them break through. But I think that is where I started off wrong. Like dad says, “No can be Robin Hood all the time Kimm.”
I am still reflecting on this whole episode.