Teaching Hope: Engagement

This entry struck me because it opens with the teacher looking back on how he felt as a college student in his final semester of coursework, right before student teaching (AKA me, in one semester).  When one of his classmates asked their professor what kinds of “baffling” and unexpected things they might run into during their careers, the professor simply answered with “‘you’ll see.’”  Of course, I find myself wondering about similar things, often with mixed feelings of excitement and nervousness.  Kids do weird/crazy/unexpected things, so you never know what you’re going to have to deal with.  Whatever these things are, will I be ready for them?  I truly believe that there is a point where nothing can prepare you more than the actual experience of being a classroom teacher, and I am beginning to become more and more aware of that as I approach the end of my time as a college student and the threshold of my future career.

The teacher in this entry shares the moment he realized that his college professor was correct in stating that there is essentially no way to prepare oneself for the day-to-day challenges of being an educator.  Whether those challenges are bizarre, like dealing with a student peeing in a soda bottle in the back of the classroom, or more extreme and heartbreaking, like losing a student to an accident, they don’t become “real” until they actually happen.  And when they do happen, they become very, very real.  Knowing that there is simply no way to prepare myself for something as grave as the loss of a student is terrifying, and it is something I think about often.  However, I know that this means that I will care, just as the teacher in this entry does.  His story brings confidence that despite the potential challenges and losses, it will all be worth it.