Kids are cool

Here are three reasons why I am so pleased to work with teenagers all day:

1. They are truly kind, sweet individuals when it comes down to it. There was a newspaper article about teacher lay-offs yesterday, and so many kids came to me and said things like, "This school wouldn't be the same without you," "Who would I talk to?", and "I'm not worried about you Ms H; you'll be here next year." So unexpected and so kind.

2. They will do almost anything I ask. We read Shakespeare's sonnet "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day", which is rather difficult to understand. I gave them the assignment to write an original poem responding to the speaker (he basically tells a woman she'll be ugly one day), and I was worried they wouldn't do the assignment. But they amazed me! Their poems are clever and funny and totally wonderful.

3. They show up when it counts. I teach an 8th period for upper class men who need to repeat English 9, 10, or 12 for an hour after school every day. I have at least 30 kids show up every day and they are respectful and intelligent. We have great conversations about literature and they obviously care about doing well.

I have the best job.

One week down, one more to go

The first semester at my school is rapidly coming to a close. It's been such a hectic time, but every day this week I fell more and more in love with my kids.

First of all, we just got back from break, so that's always rough. On Monday, I felt I had to speak really slowly and use short sentences. They were just not keeping up. But they stuck with me and we actually did a group project the first day back, and it wasn't a total disaster.

The other thing that warmed my heart was how many of them really care about doing well in my class. I've been letting kids come after school to retake tests that they didn't do well on. The first day I only got a couple kids, but today I had almost 40. It was actually a lot of fun to hang out with them after school. I made pop corn and we snacked as they took their tests. And they did so much better the second time around. I got home after 5, but I felt totally okay with it.

The last thing that reaffirmed my affections toward teenagers was that my wallet got stolen. Now, I know that seems weird, but it turned out fine. A kid stole it from my desk, but it wasn't the kid I thought did, and everything was still in my wallet. I gave a big guilt-trip speech in the class where I knew it was stolen, turned my back to the class for a minute, turned back around, and it had "magically" appeared on the book shelf.

What made me feel closer to my students was realizing how many of them have been victims of petty left. I had many really great conversations with kids who had never talked to me. All in all, it was a great week back.