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Faith Restored
Jun. 16th, 2011 10:13 pmFrom The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.
Today, there is no room for worthlessness.
After the day I had on Tuesday, with a nightmare class in a school that I knew was in a less than affluent area of the city, going back to that school today (even for the half day that it was supposed to be) was not something I was looking forward to. However, almost as soon as I reached the classroom I could tell that my experience was going to be different. Mir and I had spoken about the previous class and she had suggested – and I agreed – that the behaviour of those children reflected their teachers' attitudes toward the work they set them… where often the children's expectations of what they were told they'd do were unmet. If that were the case, then the class I was in today (Wednesday) were going to be terrific… because I could see by the state of the room, the resources in the classroom, and all of those kinds of things that this teacher went out of her way to provide good experiences for the children and follow them through no matter what. I didn't even worry when she came in and explained that they'd had a different supply teacher every day that week so far. I felt good, and confident and positive about teaching that class.
And you know what? The kids were amazing
They worked hard; they tried even when they were stuck; they were polite and cooperative. In short, they were a pleasure to teach. I was sorry to leave them at lunch time.
All of that – together with talking things through with Mir the night before – went a long way to restoring my self-confidence, my self-image of myself as a capable teacher. Then after getting lost between schools, (might be a capable teacher, but I can't walk in a straight like across a park to save my legs – LOL) I went to my second school of the day. Same kind of economic area – same kind of kids… actually had to send for the behaviour mentor (via radio) to come and help with the special needs child in the class who had found a sharp pair of scissors and was being dangerous with them. He wasn't threatening anyone with them or anything like that, nothing malicious at all in what he was doing, but it was dangerous none the less. However, even that didn't make me feel any the less capable, because again, the kids (two separate classes of kids actually, since the year cohort swap teachers to learn French with the more capable French speaker out of the two regular teachers), were hard working, mostly polite and cooperative.
You get to see all sorts of children and all kinds of schools working as a substitute: the good, the bad and the ugly.
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your
heart and try to love the questions themselves.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Today, there is no room for worthlessness.
After the day I had on Tuesday, with a nightmare class in a school that I knew was in a less than affluent area of the city, going back to that school today (even for the half day that it was supposed to be) was not something I was looking forward to. However, almost as soon as I reached the classroom I could tell that my experience was going to be different. Mir and I had spoken about the previous class and she had suggested – and I agreed – that the behaviour of those children reflected their teachers' attitudes toward the work they set them… where often the children's expectations of what they were told they'd do were unmet. If that were the case, then the class I was in today (Wednesday) were going to be terrific… because I could see by the state of the room, the resources in the classroom, and all of those kinds of things that this teacher went out of her way to provide good experiences for the children and follow them through no matter what. I didn't even worry when she came in and explained that they'd had a different supply teacher every day that week so far. I felt good, and confident and positive about teaching that class.
And you know what? The kids were amazing
They worked hard; they tried even when they were stuck; they were polite and cooperative. In short, they were a pleasure to teach. I was sorry to leave them at lunch time.
All of that – together with talking things through with Mir the night before – went a long way to restoring my self-confidence, my self-image of myself as a capable teacher. Then after getting lost between schools, (might be a capable teacher, but I can't walk in a straight like across a park to save my legs – LOL) I went to my second school of the day. Same kind of economic area – same kind of kids… actually had to send for the behaviour mentor (via radio) to come and help with the special needs child in the class who had found a sharp pair of scissors and was being dangerous with them. He wasn't threatening anyone with them or anything like that, nothing malicious at all in what he was doing, but it was dangerous none the less. However, even that didn't make me feel any the less capable, because again, the kids (two separate classes of kids actually, since the year cohort swap teachers to learn French with the more capable French speaker out of the two regular teachers), were hard working, mostly polite and cooperative.
You get to see all sorts of children and all kinds of schools working as a substitute: the good, the bad and the ugly.
