The thing that brings me joy
Tonight I was able to go to English club and teach a nine year old girl. It brought me back to a year ago when I was student teaching one on one in the self contained classroom, with Sandra White. I enjoyed every minute of it, the most enjoying moment, which burst forth within me joy unexplainable. The very reason I enjoy working with children in the first place. That moment when they finally “get” it and I can rejoice with them for their achievement. It reminded me of why, so long ago I decided to go to school for teaching. It awakened in me this deep desire to teach children. The hassle that teachers go through, to be able to finally break through with such an experience which gives way to the heart of being a teacher, is the very reason I stopped desiring to be a teacher in the first place. If I could teach, in an informal setting, where I didn’t have the weight of a corrupt school system and mounds of paper work, meetings and other regulations placed on me (the very thing that takes away the joys of teaching!) I should be content in doing so. Just the student and me, working toward that goal of a new accomplishment that would have us both rejoicing. The way I did when I worked at the YMCA before and after school program, as a resident counselor at camp and even somewhat when I was student teaching. Those are days that I cherish most in my life and long to do once again.
