A Paradigm Shift

I just finished going for a run.  About the same time that I finished, there was another guy who was finishing up as well.  As soon as he got to the curb, he pulled out a cigarette, lit up, and started smoking.  Something felt amiss.

This week, I had a similar experience where afterwards, something felt amiss.  A little background first.  Almost exactly a year ago, I had just finished teaching one of my 7th grade classes, and that the lesson had gone horrendously, as they all had up to that point.  Nothing new.

As the class was leaving, one of the few students who weren't acting out, who paid attention and actually tried to participate amidst all of the madness, and turned out to be one of my stellar students that year, made a comment on his way out the door that I continued to think about for the rest of the  school year.  He said "Mr. Woahn, you deserve a better school than this."

And I truly felt that I did.  I thought about that comment over and over and over, and I honestly believed it - I thought "I'm an awesome teacher, and these students just don't care.  They will never see that... I really do deserve a better school."  And so many times throughout all the rest of the year after there would be lessons that I'd put TONS of thought and effort and preparation in to, and I just hoped that there were students that recognized that effort.  And maybe they could empathize with my situation, and realize how hard I tried.

Back to the present.  The ELA teacher quit this week, and as such, there was a substitute who has been coming in this week to cover the class until they find a full time replacement.  After school on his way out one day, he stopped by and told me about the horrible day he'd had.  He told me about how students had been talking back to him, cussing at him, throwing things at him, running around the classroom and fighting, and pretty much exhibiting standard behavior at my school.  So I told him I'd stop by the next day during my Prep Period.

The next day during my Prep Period, I arrived in his classroom, and noted that it was my little 7th graders.  They weren't doing anything horrendous, like I could imagine the 8th graders (7th graders from last year) doing, but the teacher was nonetheless having a tough time with them.  So I just walked around the classroom, helped convey instruction and get some of the students working on what the teacher had planned for them to do.

As I knelt down by the side of one of the students desk, I looked around the room at all of my students doing their various activities in class, looked up at the substitute, the complete disorganization of the classroom, and considered the events of the coming weeks.  At some point, they're going to have a new ELA teacher.  And when that teacher arrives, my my students will have to go through the new stress of starting a "new" class, getting to know a "new" teacher, and just basically start from square one.

It was at this point I recalled my experience from the last year, but this time I thought "These kids deserve a better school than this."

And truly, they do.  They're great kids, regardless of how reckless, chaotic, and hectic they may act at times.  They do the best they can in the environment they've been brought up in, and if I can help to improve that environment at all - I'll do it.