Day 4 of my 30-Day Blogging Challenge for teachers from teachthought.com

Day 4 of my 30-Day Blogging Challenge for teachers from teachthought.com

Here is the link to the site with the 30-day challenge. 
http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/reflective-teaching-30-day-blogging-challenge-teachers/

Day 4. Respond: What do you love most about teaching?


I would have to say that my favorite part about teaching was building relationships with students. I think sometimes, as teachers, we feel that we only hear from the parents and students who are upset, while 95% of our other students and parents feel that we are doing a great job. Unfortunately, we let that 5% bother us to the point where we bring those emotions home when we leave the building.

Although I loved teaching English and watching kids grow as writers, the true rewards came when kids and/or parents came back to say, "thank you." I always knew that there were better teachers than me, but I never felt that knowledge of my content area was as important as encouraging high school students to feel confident as they attacked a piece of literature. One of my favorite parts of the year was watching high school football players deconstruct and analyze Shakespearean sonnets, all while trying to keep up their, "tough guy," persona; but those are the moments that we remember and take with us, not the nasty emails and test scores that sometimes cloud our days.

Leaving the classroom and jumping into the role of technology facilitator has been hard this past year, but I know that I am still indirectly making an impact on instruction that will allow, encourage and foster student success.



Just for kicks I am putting a copy of an email below that is  from a student who I wasn't even sure liked me; but like I said before, it is the moments like this that make it all worth it.



I wasn't sure if I would have time to say this tomorrow with whatever it is we're going to do and the many people I have to thank tomorrow, so I wanted to take the time to write it to you now.  My mom suggested that we get you some sort of card or food gift set thing, but I told her that it would be awkward and that Mr. Vlk wouldn't appreciate a fancy ham box.

Thank you for being an awesome teacher.  Thank you for picking on me and making me speak up in class, even though I really didn't want to at times.  Thank you for forcing me to come out of my shell and talk about myself and my own ideas despite me holding myself back.  You really went above and beyond the call of duty, and I'll always remember that.