What I Know to be True about Teaching

It is exam week. We have three more days until the long, lazy days begin. The fireflies are already glowing. The cicadas have been trilling for weeks. Ending the school year is always difficult. Students mentally "check out" after the state-mandated tests. I like to end the year with poetry, and a student introduced me to the "Ted Talk" of spoken word poet, Sarah Kay. I like her. I especially like that she tricks her students into writing by having them do lists. I do that, too. I almost always write my own version of the assignment I have my students do, and so this is my list of Ten Things I Know to be True (about Teaching). 1. I know laughter is necessary in the classroom. 2. I know a student is more likely to work for me when there is mutual respect, and the more nurturing I am the more eager students are to please me. 3. I know when I shut the classroom door and face the young adults I forget about administrative expectations, parental harrassment, political agendas, and paperwork. The only people who matter when the bell rings are those teenagers waiting to find out what is going to happen today. 4. I know summer would be less necessary if the extranneous expectations, harrassment, agendas, and paperwork were somehow minimized. The students do wear me down, but they are not the reason I need a break. 5. I know many of my students who have severe reading delays were either traumatically hurt or excessively hungry during their early childhood. 6. I know there is a high correlation between my students who are diagnosed with ADHD and their addiction to devices. 7. I know some of my students do not feel loved. I also know that does not mean they are not loved, but it does mean they are not getting the kind of love they need. 8. I know when a student has chronic hunger because there is a lack of money to regularly feed her she does not care in the least about grammar, rhetorical strategies, or MLA formatting. I also know the hungry students appreciate a story that resonates. 9. I know I am not supposed to make physical contact with my students, but sometimes they just need a hug or a pat on the head or a touch on the arm. 10. I know teaching is a calling.