The other day, a teacher friend wrote a list of her "stats" as a teacher and it got me thinking...
What are my stats?
I graduated in December 2008 and got hired right away for a long term sub position as a 5th Grade Special Education Teacher. I had 5 students on my caseload that year, most with only minor learning difficulties. Those kids graduated high school a few weeks ago. Yet I can still picture them as little 5th Graders. I clearly remember one, G, running down the hall in his own unique way, every morning as he saw me, yelling Hi Ms Nichols, and holding his hand up ready for a high five.
After that I moved to Senegal and taught 3rd grade my first year at Dakar Academy. I ended the year with 10 kids, about half of which are still here. It's so fun for me to have watched them grow over the years and see them as 9th (now, going into 10th) Graders. I have so many memories of this crew, from my first experience with checking little boys' pockets for stray lizards brought in the classroom to the girl with the cutest little pigtails riding her bike over to meet me on my first or second day in country, to "help" me...which actually ended up being a few days of me setting up the classroom and her talking about everything she could think of. I LOVED it!
After that, I taught 1st Grade for 3 years. I had so many different faces come through my classroom doors over those 3 years. There were the hyper ones who gave me the reputation as the teacher who mastered "organized chaos." There were the ones who were so calm and quiet that you'd barely know they were even there. And there were the ones who imprinted their memories in my heart so much that I'll never forget them.
It was during their 3 years that I learned the value of a good T.A., having 3 that made my life as a 1st Grade teacher so much easier. It was always so fun to see the interactions between my 1st Graders and the "big kids."
At the end of those 3 years, I switched over to ESL and had students in almost every single grade from 1st to 12th. This was my first experience teaching Middle and High School students and while I was scared (yes, scared) at first, I realized by the end of the year, just how much I enjoyed it. And like I wrote in one of those kids' yearbooks the other night...
Sometimes a teacher learns just as much from a student as she has taught him/her.
It was one of those HS students who taught me so much that year. And now she's proved to DA, and the world, she's a rock star and kicked the English language in the tail, by working hard enough to master it and so much more by graduating this year.
At the end of that year I said See ya Later to Dakar Academy and headed to Selma, Alabama and taught Special Education for 1 1/2 years. I had kids in 2nd through 5th Grades, with a fairly wide range of disabilities/learning difficulties. I'm not going to lie. This job was tough at times. But I loved it. I loved those sweet hugs and shouts of "Hey Nichols! I see you!" I learned so much on this job and it confirmed what I'd known all along... Of the 3 areas in which I'm certified, Special Education is definitely my favorite.
In February, I came back to DA and finished up this school year with a group of kids I affectionately dubbed, my Squirrels, due to their squirreliness :) It didn't take long for this class of 9 boys and 1 girl to win my heart and show me a little glimpse of why God allowed me the gift of returning earlier than planned to Senegal. So I was overjoyed to hear the news that I'd be following them on to 5th Grade next year!
Over the years I've made some lasting memories with the students God's placed in my classroom...
There was the first tooth I pulled for a girl who was so scared that she'd scream if anyone came near her mouth. Yet, with the help of sweet words, ice, and prayer that my weak stomach wouldn't betray me, we pulled her tooth with no pain, tears, or screams...except for the loud cheering of all her classmates when we finally pulled it and called both her mom and her dad to let them know :)
There was the day that a child stepped on a nail and came in crying, but due to his incredibly limited English and my completely non-existent Bambara, he couldn't tell me what was wrong. Finally through some charades, I realize what had happened. And as I sat on the floor with his dirty foot in my lap and cleaned it with warm, soapy water, and applied medicine and a bandage to it, he smiled for the first time ever (to me), then hugged me, and said "Teacher."
Or what about the girl who struggled so much with learning English that she cried and wonder aloud if she'd ever learn this difficult language... And then here she is today, having done double the work as some of her peers and will receive her HS diploma tonight at DA's graduation.
There's the kid who called me some pretty nasty curse words and lunged at me with a pair of scissors, and then couldn't understand why I had to restrain him and carry him down the stairs to the office. He didn't see me locking me classroom and crying my eyes out because I felt like I'd failed him. But when he came back to school the next day, and he gave me a ginormous hug and said "I love you Nichols" with those big, beautiful brown eyes, my heart melted and I knew the sweet kid I knew was back.
There's the ones for whom who I've given up my afternoons to tutor in math...
...or part of my break time each day to tutor in Speech.
There's the ones I gave up prep periods for so I could do Guided Study Halls to help them navigate the difficulties in HS Biology or Bible or Economics.
There's the ones who have made me want to pull out my hair or scream in frustration, all the while taking a deep breath and plastering a smile on my face, knowing it really wasn't their fault they were acting that way.
There's the ones who made me laugh, who told corny kid jokes that made no sense whatsoever, yet because of how they told it, I couldn't help but laugh.
There's the ones who's made me smile...
...and the ones who have even made me cry (good/happy tears, of course).
And do you want to know something?
Since December 2008, I've taught a little over 100 students. And each one of those has one thing in common...
Each one has taught me something.
Each one has challenged me.
Each one has helped to make me be a better teacher.
Each one has taken a tiny piece of my heart with them when they left the doorway of my classroom that last time, only to replace it with memories I'll cherish forever.
