Humans of the Classroom: All the Feels
Happy Back to School! Of course many schools have already started, but in honor of the traditional post-Labor Day start, I’m introducing a new series that I hope will be fairly regular on this blog: Humans of the Classroom. These are snapshots by real teachers in the trenches, sharing the highs and lows and realities of classroom teaching.
To kick us off, the following piece is by a social studies teacher at a private school in the Pacific Northwest.
All the Feels
Teaching is exhilarating, emotional, exhausting…it is all the feels for just over nine months of the year and then two and a half months of breathing, recharging, and re-designing lesson plans. When I started teaching, I had no idea just how many feels I would have nor could I grasp the vast number of students who would leave an impact on my life. Over the course of seven years of teaching at one school, I created curriculum for over 20 different courses. Everything from Pre-Algebra to Civil War and Literature to AP/Honors U.S. History.
It. Was. EXHAUSTING! (But on the plus side, I was never bored!)
For my seventh year of teaching, I found myself especially excited for ninth grade World History. There is just something about ninth grade that is unique and beautifully awkward. Even though they pretend not to care, they always roll with my crazy ideas and goofy analogies.
Enter the graduating class of 2022. They started out the school year with the “too cool for school” vibes and I was crushed. How was I going to cultivate an environment of trust and respect and fun if they wouldn’t even TALK!?! But with lots of work, time, and effort getting to know each other, that rough start went on to become moments and memories and inside jokes that hold all the feels for me.
However, there was still one student that remained aloof. I could not gauge him. We would banter back and forth, but I always wondered if he was simply biding his time until he could escape and never look back.
On the very last day of school a group of freshmen somehow found themselves back in my classroom as I was tearing it all down. You see, I was saying goodbye and setting out for the unknowns. I was saying goodbye to students and fellow staff and the beautiful little place that had become my home away from home. One of those freshmen was this boy who I was sure was not especially fond of me.
And then, he opened his mouth and said, “You’re coming back after taking a year off right? You’ll be back for the fall of our junior year?” and then proceeded to make a countdown and hide it in the classroom. It is one thing when the students you connect with do something sweet and kind like that, but when a student you didn’t know was even listening says they want you to teach them again, well…that moment holds all the feels.
