A Best Day in Education

There are those days that you have in teaching. You know the ones. Your inbox is full of emails that you need to respond to. You see the notification that you have 50 assignments to be graded. The paper that you absolutely needed for today's lesson couldn't be copied because someone jammed the copier. The one student you've been working with on behavior decided to regress today. You also have a meeting after school when all you want to do it just get caught up!

Those days are long, hard, and certainly doesn't show the side of teaching that many teachers signed up for. So, why continue with it? Why do we continue to put up with all of it? Because, it's all worth it for those days when something seemingly magical happens.

This story needs a little backstory...

As a choir director, I have a lot of students that decide to take choir for a number of reasons:
    "It's an Easy-A"
    "No homework!"
    "My friends are doing it so I want to hang out with them."
    " I dunno, I was just put here because they needed to fill my schedule with something."

None of those statements are, "I love to sing and I plan to make music a life-long passion." A choir director would love to hear that, but it's usually not the case.

One year, I had a 7th grade boy who evidently was forced to take choir from the impressions I got within the first few weeks of class. He was an athlete and spend most of his time trying to impress everyone in the class with witty comments and the ability to draw the attention onto himself. I tried to address and ignore certain behaviors as needed, and eventually he realized he wasn't going to fluster me. I spent the year with his choir watching as the students improved, and he eventually fell in line and started to sing. His voice was, ok, but he was making an attempt which was more than he normally did. After our second concert of the year, I saw him still at the school after almost everyone had gone home. I checked-in with him where he told me his parents didn't want to come to the choir concert because it wasn't basketball. How frustrating it was to hear that, not to mention how he must have felt! I sat and talked with him for a bit until he got picked up. Our conversations weren't very memorable - sports, school, the concert - but he did seem to open up. Things changed from that day on.

Throughout the rest of the year, his demeanor and focus completely changed, and gradually his voice started to improve. Puberty helped with that too. By the end of the year, he sat the straightest during class, and even helped keep others on track with his leadership. I couldn't believe it.

He came back for choir 8th grade year, and although I had asked him to think about joining our Select Choir, he told me he couldn't because he was still committed to basketball after school.

The year went well for him. His voice dropped into a low Bass range which made him more comfortable, he became a solid leader, and even sang a solo for one of our concerts.

The end of the year was coming, and he was moving on to High School and was no longer going to be my student. One day he shockingly asked me if I could help him practice for his audition for one of the small auditioned choir groups at the High School! Of course I agreed, and I found out a little later that he had made the 16 member underclass group. He thanked me for the help and for teaching him over the last two years. I congratulated him and wished him well. But that's not the end of the story. Now comes the Best Day:

A few years later, I hear a knock on my classroom door after school. I look over and see a towering guy at my door. It was the same kid, but obviously way more grownup as a soon-to-be Senior. I welcomed him and he told me he purposefully wanted to come talk to me. He explained that he was planning to make a career out of music. In High School, he had learned to play the guitar, and had been singing and performing around the community. He also informed me that he'd given up on basketball this past year and his parents were now fully invested into his singing and music making. He thanked me for being patient with him and for always looking out for him and caring for him. He remembered little things I said and did, which I didn't remember at all. Eventually he brought up the night after the concert. He said he always remembered that night, and how much it meant to him that I sat and talked with him. I'd almost not remembered until he reminded me of it. It was very emotional and extremely gratifying all at the same time.

Sometimes you don't really know how you're going to affect a student by the things you say and do, but what I've learned it that even if the day-to-day is sometimes difficult, none of that matters because it's moments like the ones above that makes teaching incredibly rewarding. How does the way you interact with your students show you care for each of them?