First year of teaching: student letters
Now that I've shared a few things about that first week, I thought I'd follow up with a few more reflections on that first year of teaching. I was quite disappointed and frustrated with how ill prepared I was after uni to step into a full time teaching position and face all that such a position entailed.
You may imagine that I spent a lot of that year angry and in tears. For the most part, I managed to keep that outside of the classroom. Amongst all the papers from that year that were in Mum's garage, I found a card from two of my Year 7 girls. They clearly spent a lot of time making it themselves - cardboard, stickers, pencil erased beneath texta, pages with their individual letters to me, and some of the neatest handwriting I saw all that year. I will again remove the names, but here is what they wrote.
Letter 1:
I am so sorry I made you cry I really didn't mean to.
I have not been the best in English and I am so sorry for that, but I know for a fact that when I am good you and me get along really well and school is better then so I hope that this card truly means something to you and you will forgive me because I was very sad that I have made your year bad and I wish I could start all over again.
thankyou for teaching me this year I hope I leave you on a good note!!!
Letter 2:
I am truly sorry that I made you cry. I am sorry if I have displayed bad attitude towards you. I know sometimes I don't behave that well but when I'm good you and me have a good laugh and its fun. Your one of the best English teachers I know and I'm sorry I didn't treat you like one. I felt like crying when I found out you cried. I hope you can forgive me and what I have said means something. Thankyou for teaching me this year/
xxx
(Heart) I'm sorry
Now
My memory, if it serves me well, places this card in the second half of the year, after the class had been rebuked by another staff member (the head of campus, I think, although the school counsellor may have been there as well) for their behaviour to me in class.
If that is the case, it didn't completely change things for very long. But it seems to have reminded them that teachers are human too, and do have feelings. Or at least, it reminded (and rebuked) two out of the thirty students in the class.
My first year of teaching was difficult and painful, a steep but important learning curve for me.
You may imagine that I spent a lot of that year angry and in tears. For the most part, I managed to keep that outside of the classroom. Amongst all the papers from that year that were in Mum's garage, I found a card from two of my Year 7 girls. They clearly spent a lot of time making it themselves - cardboard, stickers, pencil erased beneath texta, pages with their individual letters to me, and some of the neatest handwriting I saw all that year. I will again remove the names, but here is what they wrote.
Letter 1:
I am so sorry I made you cry I really didn't mean to.
I have not been the best in English and I am so sorry for that, but I know for a fact that when I am good you and me get along really well and school is better then so I hope that this card truly means something to you and you will forgive me because I was very sad that I have made your year bad and I wish I could start all over again.
thankyou for teaching me this year I hope I leave you on a good note!!!
Letter 2:
I am truly sorry that I made you cry. I am sorry if I have displayed bad attitude towards you. I know sometimes I don't behave that well but when I'm good you and me have a good laugh and its fun. Your one of the best English teachers I know and I'm sorry I didn't treat you like one. I felt like crying when I found out you cried. I hope you can forgive me and what I have said means something. Thankyou for teaching me this year/
xxx
(Heart) I'm sorry
Now
My memory, if it serves me well, places this card in the second half of the year, after the class had been rebuked by another staff member (the head of campus, I think, although the school counsellor may have been there as well) for their behaviour to me in class.
If that is the case, it didn't completely change things for very long. But it seems to have reminded them that teachers are human too, and do have feelings. Or at least, it reminded (and rebuked) two out of the thirty students in the class.
My first year of teaching was difficult and painful, a steep but important learning curve for me.
It is a real problem for schools - first year teachers find it so difficult, that many of them don't stay!!
ReplyDeleteWhile I was studying to become a teacher we were told that 50% of graduating teachers would leave the profession within the first five years. I wonder if any other career has similar statistics. It makes you wonder why very little, if anything, seems to be happening to change this statistic to ensure either that graduating teachers are better prepared before reaching a school, or that schools support first year teachers more effectively. This would be better for both the teachers and the students!
Delete