I've had a lot of heartache over my career as an educator, and though some may see me as a hardass teacher, I care so deeply for my students and want them desperately to succeed beyond a number or letter grade. I am delighted when something clicks and they use Spanish in spontaneous ways or when they want to learn more or when they make connections to their other classes or when they tell me they were able to help someone at their job because the customer only spoke Spanish. Yet, my heartaches stems from seeing my students over the years who have not engaged--or even refused--to do work in Spanish class. I know my class may not be their favorite class, but my heart aches when I see students deliberately make academic and social choices that I know will be detrimental to them.
I understand that not everyone has a passion for learning Spanish, but it has always been to help students know how to manage how to interact not only with someone who is from a Spanish-speaking culture, but to also be able to interact with someone who is different within their own culture. My heart aches when I see my students not engage nor participate because they don't know I've been up early and up late constructing activities that will build on the next in order to help them grow their language skills. My heart aches when I see my students look more at Facebook than their classmates. My heart aches when my students tell me at the end of the year that they don't speak Spanish and don't try because it's the end of the year. These particularly students are not only novice, they are heartbreakingly novice.
Yet it delights me when I students hunger for more learning. It feeds my soul when students give me a fist bump and a "What's up, Profe?" in the hallway. And I'm so proud of my former students who come up to me in the city and tell me of their accomplishments since graduation. They don't know how I keep all of these aches and joys in my heart, in addition to the joys and pains I have in raising my own children.
But my students don't see that. And that's all right; teenagers live in an egocentric world as they are learning to look beyond themselves.
In the end, though, hope that my pride in them overshadows any heartaches.
I understand that not everyone has a passion for learning Spanish, but it has always been to help students know how to manage how to interact not only with someone who is from a Spanish-speaking culture, but to also be able to interact with someone who is different within their own culture. My heart aches when I see my students not engage nor participate because they don't know I've been up early and up late constructing activities that will build on the next in order to help them grow their language skills. My heart aches when I see my students look more at Facebook than their classmates. My heart aches when my students tell me at the end of the year that they don't speak Spanish and don't try because it's the end of the year. These particularly students are not only novice, they are heartbreakingly novice.
Yet it delights me when I students hunger for more learning. It feeds my soul when students give me a fist bump and a "What's up, Profe?" in the hallway. And I'm so proud of my former students who come up to me in the city and tell me of their accomplishments since graduation. They don't know how I keep all of these aches and joys in my heart, in addition to the joys and pains I have in raising my own children.
But my students don't see that. And that's all right; teenagers live in an egocentric world as they are learning to look beyond themselves.
In the end, though, hope that my pride in them overshadows any heartaches.