COVER STORY
When it comes to using their own money to purchase classroom materials and supplies, teachers have pockets deeper than Captain Kangaroo's...
This year, I have a very challenging class. (Substitutes pray that I never have to take off for any reason!) In fact, in October, I was seriously thinking about taking a years leave of absence to do some serious sole searching about whether or not I wanted to remain in teaching. Well, we are at the half way point of the year, and the class is still a challenge, but I'm no longer thinking about taking a year's leave of absence and here is why.
My youngest student turned five the day before school started and didn't have a clue how to hold a pencil/crayon, much less how to color or write his name. We have a writing program that we started this year, and after several weeks of dotting the letters in his name so that he could at least trace it, I finally stopped doing it, because I felt it was time for him to try doing it on his own. One day, I was using the overhead, and I was writing my name on the transparency, and the students were supposed to write their names on their papers. To my surprise, this student wrote "my name" almost perfectly. So the next day, I wrote "his" name on the transparency, and he copied it nearly perfect on his own paper. Yes, he had a name tag on his desk, and it had been there since school started, but he learned how to write it from copying from the overhead. Now he can write his name with no help at all.
No amount of money makes me feel as good as I feel when a struggling student learns how to do something!
This year, I have a very challenging class. (Substitutes pray that I never have to take off for any reason!) In fact, in October, I was seriously thinking about taking a years leave of absence to do some serious sole searching about whether or not I wanted to remain in teaching. Well, we are at the half way point of the year, and the class is still a challenge, but I'm no longer thinking about taking a year's leave of absence and here is why.
My youngest student turned five the day before school started and didn't have a clue how to hold a pencil/crayon, much less how to color or write his name. We have a writing program that we started this year, and after several weeks of dotting the letters in his name so that he could at least trace it, I finally stopped doing it, because I felt it was time for him to try doing it on his own. One day, I was using the overhead, and I was writing my name on the transparency, and the students were supposed to write their names on their papers. To my surprise, this student wrote "my name" almost perfectly. So the next day, I wrote "his" name on the transparency, and he copied it nearly perfect on his own paper. Yes, he had a name tag on his desk, and it had been there since school started, but he learned how to write it from copying from the overhead. Now he can write his name with no help at all.
No amount of money makes me feel as good as I feel when a struggling student learns how to do something!
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