Professor Sharon

100 Days Project – Day 11 – 8:31 p.m.

“Ten. At the end of the day, good teaching is about having fun, experiencing pleasure and intrinsic rewards … like locking eyes with a student in the back row and seeing the synapses and neurons connecting, thoughts being formed, the person becoming better, and a smile cracking across a face as learning all of a sudden happens. Good teachers practice their craft not for the money or because they have to, but because they truly enjoy it and because they want to. Good teachers couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

I experienced a wonderful day of teaching today.  Four classes, a little short of  80 students, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.  Each class began to interact in really important ways.  The reluctant student spoke to others.  The student quick to volunteer to speak thought before speaking today.  In one class, a student visably had a lightbulb turn on with only two articles under her belt.  Others were drawn into her enthusiasm as she came to a (I suspect) transformative moment in realizing the real task of early care and education.  Fabulous!

Are all days like this?  Nope, no how, no way.  Even if I was as prepared as I was today, thought through the rhythm of large, small group discussion, free writes, mini-lectures, participation activity, and expected brain cells to pop all over the place.  Somedays the energy just isn’t there:  perhaps life is too stressful for too many in the classroom to pay attention to the material or to me, someone that they know is usually at least interesting and as I was called today, “creative in presenting the material.”  (Loved that compliment!)

Great days, like today, make teaching “easy.”  The excitement of watching learning is infectious and joyful.  Not so good days are the ones where every being of your professionalism must come to bear.  I must be understanding of the student who I’m sure has asked that how to question at least four classes in a row.  I must guide that student who talks way too much to give others air time.  I must notice that the reluctant student, after coming out of the shell a bit, has suddenly retreated.  I must figure out what to do about the two cellphones being used to text under the table.

Even on those days however, days when the classes didn’t go well, and I’m so tired that if I were four years old, I would sit down and cry, I do it.  As the quote mentions above, good teachers can’t imagine doing anything else.  I certainly can’t – and I’ve tried other things – so I know of which I speak.  Today I am thinking about passion.