Most days, I doubt that I am teaching my kids enough. I stand at the top of this room and look out over those faces and worry.Worry that I am letting them down. They are so young and seem to know so little.
Then occasionally, I have a bright idea. This time, I assigned them to write a biographical essay on someone that they know who has had to persevere. This was not meant to be a hard topic or even a deep one. The assignment was pretty simple too: interview a person, convert the interview into an essay.
Now any writing assignment for these kids is actually not that easy--well, not from my end. It seems as though getting words on paper is like pulling teeth. They don't know where to start--a thesis statement is somewhat foreign to them. But most of them try very hard.
My reward for this assignment comes when the kids realize things about their parents or loved ones that they did not know before. Perhaps they didn't know that raising kids was a hard job, that divorce isn't easy on parents either. That even though the students are expected to go to college, the parents dreams are unrealized because their children came first.
One afternoon, I sat with a student as he tried to put his introductory paragraph together. He was struggling with how to describe his own father, who has been in a wheel chair for a while. I started asking him questions about how his dad did day to day things that he took for granted. The student just looked up at me and said "you know, I never really paid any attention to it. Maybe I should start."
And then I realize I have taught them something unintentionally, and those are the best lessons.
Then occasionally, I have a bright idea. This time, I assigned them to write a biographical essay on someone that they know who has had to persevere. This was not meant to be a hard topic or even a deep one. The assignment was pretty simple too: interview a person, convert the interview into an essay.
Now any writing assignment for these kids is actually not that easy--well, not from my end. It seems as though getting words on paper is like pulling teeth. They don't know where to start--a thesis statement is somewhat foreign to them. But most of them try very hard.
My reward for this assignment comes when the kids realize things about their parents or loved ones that they did not know before. Perhaps they didn't know that raising kids was a hard job, that divorce isn't easy on parents either. That even though the students are expected to go to college, the parents dreams are unrealized because their children came first.
One afternoon, I sat with a student as he tried to put his introductory paragraph together. He was struggling with how to describe his own father, who has been in a wheel chair for a while. I started asking him questions about how his dad did day to day things that he took for granted. The student just looked up at me and said "you know, I never really paid any attention to it. Maybe I should start."
And then I realize I have taught them something unintentionally, and those are the best lessons.
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