Small Victories

This one isn't about football; it's about my job. I'm in my 3rd year teaching English, and I've often heard people say of the teaching profession, "It's worth it if you reach just one student." But, near the end of my rookie year, I had serious doubts about this philosophy. I remember saying, "Reach just one? Are you kidding me? I work too hard for just one!"

That was my inexperience talking, because by this point in my career, I totally get it. They are hard to reach. And, with so many other things getting in the way of teaching, it's almost impossible to feel like anything you do matters to anyone. It's easy to see how teachers can become disheartened and frustrated. We survive by celebrating the small victories, and today...you can put one in the win column for me.

I am fortunate to get to teach AP language and composition at the school where I work. It's like teaching a college writing course to juniors. I absolutely love teaching it because it gives me the chance to expose juniors to something they don't already know about language and writing, which you would never get in a regular ELA class since that stuff really hasn't changed since first grade. In AP, I get to challenge them. I get to teach.

A few weeks ago, I divided the classes up into groups and assigned them a topic and a position for a debate. They've worked for two weeks researching, planning, and crafting their arguments. Today, we began the debates. It was rewarding enough to have my 5th period students discussing the in-class debate we had been having over their lunches, but at the end of the day, it got better than that.

One of the major goal of the assignment was to win the debate. I had the class vote on which side of today's issue had presented the most compelling argument. On her way out to her car, one of the young ladies who presented today stopped by to ask, wide-eyed with anticipation, if I had counted the votes and if I would tell her. She isn't one of those grade-obsessed over-achievers either, just a regular student who had worked hard and, coincidentally, won the debate over another group who had also done an impressive job by unanimous decision. I told her as much, and she smiled from ear to ear. As she walked away, I heard her say to a friend, "That just made my whole day!"

Little did she know, it had made my day, too.