30 Day Challenge | Day 4

Day 4 | What do you love the most about teaching?

The students.  

It makes all the other hoops we have to jump through just a little bit more tolerable each day.  

The first time I really felt like I made a difference was in my 2nd year of teaching.  Long story short, I worked with a very difficult and troubled student.  This person was sent out of my room to the office one day due to an altercation we had in class.  Fast-forward to the last day of school and this person was writing happy goodbyes on my board.

The next big moment was during my 4th year of teaching when a student, for senior night at their basketball game, had to choose a significant person in their life walk them out on the floor - it was his Mom, and naturally, it should have been! Before this happened, the student came over to thank me.  He said he wouldn't have been taking that walk with his Mom if I hadn't pushed him in school and basketball the way I had.

Since then, the number of students that stay in touch with me, through a variety of means, adds to the rewards of this job.  Watching these young men and women mature and go on to graduate college and move on to jobs they've always dreamed of having is amazing and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.