It's amazing to comment on how far I've come so far this year. Time-wise. I mean, I'm already (almost) halfway through the 2nd quarter, and it's already almost December.
However, I still feel like my head's back in September. Am I doing any good to my students?
I got into this job hoping that I would have a constant impact on my students and to teach them something I knew that they didn't. But, apparently this is easier said than done. I am constantly longing for the discourse that I had as a student in college, being challenged constantly by my professor and thinking sophisticatedly and outside the box, expanding my brain. But, to achieve this in high school is near-impossible.
The first week of school I quoted to my students something from Plato, something Protagoras said to his students: “If you associate with me, the result will be that on the very day you begin you will return home a better person, and the same will happen the next day too. Each day you will make constant progress towards being better.” I truly believe that some one person can have this impact on somebody else. And I'd like to think I'm capable of that with my students. But, I don't know if they're capable of accepting that.
How do I get them to that point? How do I get them to be better?
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“If you possess yourself, you have something you will never want to give up and something which Fortune cannot take from you.” - Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
This blog encompasses the musings of my everyday life as a student, a teacher, a listener, a friend, an observer, a lover, and an American.
About Me
- Mr J Dubs
- Farmingville, NY, United States
- I am a high school English teacher in Long Island, NY. I teach at Sachem North HS, which is where I went to high school. I am a recent University of Delaware graduate. I love music and movies, and books are pretty good too.
2 comments:
I feel your pain. I'm teaching middle school now, and I'm constantly having to bring the level down because I'm actually, really, asking a little too much.
I got tagged for a meme, and I'm paying it forward, as memes are meant to be paid. Details: http://theophanyallover.blogspot.com/2007/12/meme-me.html
Yes, yes, yes...
As educators, of course we aspire to influence students the way we were influenced, but I think I've realized that that influence is going to come in different forms with different students. For example, I might not ever get Nick to give a shit about Beowulf, but I got Nick to write a pretty brilliant satire on genocide. I didn't get Jessica to improve her 7th grade level grammar/spelling, which was initially my goal, but she opened up about how addiction had affected her life and gave a truly memorable speech. I think I'm saying that we affect them and inspire them in different ways, many times in ways we didn't intend, but I think that's what makes this profession truly beautiful! And, sometimes, it's the little things that make a difference.
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