Why I'm a Good Teacher

Guys, I'll be honest. Teaching is one of the most rewarding and most difficult jobs in the world. I am thankful for everyday that I get to be a teacher, but the man always tries to bring me down (aka horrid evaluations done by bureaucrats who have no idea what teaching is like).

To be honest, my evaluations are amazing compared to some of my peers, but I decided I needed a little teacher pick-me-up to put the wiggle back in my waggle. Thus, this list was born.

Here are 5 reasons why I think I'm a good teacher.

1. I give my students everything I have, every single day. When I'm sick, or crabby, or anxious, I don't let it show. The second I step onto campus, with the crumbling brick and textbooks that date back to when I was in school (seriously - they have the exact same textbook I did), I put a smile on my face and show my students that everything is going to be all right, because they have it 1000x worse than I do and they need to hear it from someone.

2. I love them for everything that they are and everything that they have to do. When they work a minimum wage job until 2 in the morning because if they don't, their moms won't be able to pay rent or they won't be able to eat, I don't criticize them for the tired looks in their eyes or not having their papers done. I give them an extension or help them to complete it because it's hard to write a paper on Shakespeare when you haven't been able to shower in a week.

3. I encourage my students to be the best that they can, every moment that they can. When everyone's told them that they can't, I tell them that they can, because even if I'm wrong, the cycle has to stop somewhere and hearing it from me is better than hearing it from no one at all.

4. I show them that school "is for them", because when you've only ever failed assignments that weren't really made for you in the first place, it's hard to want to come back only to fail again. I show them the things that they've done well and how they can do better next time, because -18 and +2 are not the same thing.

5. I think about them every moment of every day, because if I hadn't been afforded the opportunities that I was and been born into the family that I was, I could be just like them. I could be stuck in a place where no one believes in me and I barely believe in myself. I could be so exhausted that I don't want to move and so determined that I have to.
March 21st, 2016 at 05:45pm