The art of teaching...

If you are a teacher or you have a close loved one who is a teacher, you know very well that it is a thankless career. We rarely witness first hand the effects of our work. Once in a while a student will return to your class to tell you how much you influenced them, but if you're like me and move every 5 years, you aren't there to even here that. However, the power of a teacher is immense! The control and influence over young minds growing, developing, and shaping into adults is enormous. We need to use caution with this power. I LOVE teaching. I LOVE the kid contact. I LOVE the unpredictability of working with adolescents. I LOVE their humor and their innocence and their honesty--even when they ask, "Ms. Sara, what is that around your neck?" (referring to my new crocheted scarf)
Today, I am blessed with a rare reward in teaching. My students just finished reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.Here is a small description of the novel: "Speak up for yourself -- we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows that this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. This time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.
Today I am scoring journals my students wrote while reading. They were to pick significant quotes from the text and write a short explanation to why the quote is important to the story. One student wrote the following at the end of their journal:
"I just wanted to say something, I think this book was very good and even though in the beginning I thought it was going to be one of those really bad books where the story makes no sense, but I really enjoyed this book and it changed the way I look at sex, because as a boy all you want to do is have sex (lol) but now I have more respect for it. I look at it as a more sacred thing and a special thing and now I know that it can basically ruin a girl's life. Great book Ms. Sara!!! Promise me that in every single year that you teach you will give this book for your students to read."
If I have failed at all else this academic year, I have been successful in affecting ONE student! AH, the Power of Teaching!