Your poem introducing this reflection could have been written by many of us, I feel. Over and over, in my almost 60 years of teaching, I have said, "I did not come here to bury my students." Every heartbreak is the most painful. And we remember; we share our stories about them; and we learn that every young one before us is the gift that teaches us how to lead, guide and teach, Thank you.
My first year, forty years ago as a student teacher in a public school, was a comic mix of abject failure (mostly) and inspired achievement (now and then). We have to do things badly before we can do them well. Your students are lucky to have you, and you them.
Thank you, Scott! And if I haven't said it before, let me say it here now: your own witness as a teacher to me is a model I keep in my mind when I am in the classroom. THANK YOU for your witness as teacher and reader and writer!
Your poem introducing this reflection could have been written by many of us, I feel. Over and over, in my almost 60 years of teaching, I have said, "I did not come here to bury my students." Every heartbreak is the most painful. And we remember; we share our stories about them; and we learn that every young one before us is the gift that teaches us how to lead, guide and teach, Thank you.
My first year, forty years ago as a student teacher in a public school, was a comic mix of abject failure (mostly) and inspired achievement (now and then). We have to do things badly before we can do them well. Your students are lucky to have you, and you them.
Thank you, Scott! And if I haven't said it before, let me say it here now: your own witness as a teacher to me is a model I keep in my mind when I am in the classroom. THANK YOU for your witness as teacher and reader and writer!
Kindred knuckleheads.
Keep writing.
Thank you, Father Marc! I will.