Sometimes I worry about my students' academics and whether I am teaching them in the best way I possibly can. I wonder if I could be doing more.
At times like this, God steps in and gives me wonderful little reminders. Like today right before lunch, two of my students came over to me. They know I'm on lunch duty this week, and they argued back and forth a little bit over who would ask me. I kept saying, "ask me what?" They kept nudging the other. Eventually, one of them said, "We have some questions for you."
"Okay...." The bell rings.
"Will you sit with us for lunch?" I say I will, of course. What teacher doesn't like to be invited to join their students for lunch? It was very sweet.
It turns out that they wanted to ask questions about Heaven and Hell, which led to a conversation about grace and sin. Yes, a very weighty lunchtime topic, but an important one, nonetheless. So, we got talking. "But, Ms. Becca, we make so many mistakes every day!"One of them said.
"I do, too, but God is gracious and understanding and will forgive you if you go to him."
They gasp; seriously, they gasped. "YOU make mistakes?"
"Many. Every day."
"I don't know if I believe that. We see you every day, Ms. Becca."
It was my turn to be astounded. I was surprised that my students never noticed my mistakes or errors. They didn't see the moments I may have been less patient than I'd like to be. They didn't care about the times when I did my mental math wrong (darn you, mental math). They didn't care about that. It was very humbling, and it reminded me of the grace that God extends to me and that I must extend to myself as well.
It was indeed a humility day. I had a conference with a student's parents today that was very encouraging; it reminded me that being a teacher is as much, if not more, about what we are implicitly teaching our students than it is about what we're explicitly teaching. You know, those little life lesson moments, those eternity-impacting moments, those moments when you realize there's a change in your student.
I met the student of the parents I had the conference with at our school's orientation day at the beginning of the year. I remember him being so quiet, so discouraged about school. He was not rude, but he explained that he didn't like school, didn't like reading, and school just wasn't his thing.
I told him that I hoped he'd change his mind about school over this year.
Today, his parents told me that he practically pushes them out the door in the morning, saying he can't be late. They said they never have to make him get up anymore. They said he is happy. It was such an encouraging moment for me.
I don't know if they'll ever know how special those words meant to this rookie teacher.
If you're a first year teacher, too, then remember this: How you care about your students matters. Hugely.
