I love teaching. There’s just something so special about knowing that you have the ability to help someone see and reach their own potential. To be able to inspire people to want to learn more, to dig deeper, to ask questions and to expect more of themselves is a gift and I don’t take it lightly. I’m lucky to be able to do what I do.

As we go through the school year and the curriculum, there are times when we feel like we must have really gotten through to our students. There are moments when we feel like, “Yeah, I think I might have made a difference there” or “Hey, I think they really enjoyed that lesson.” But we can never really know what our students are thinking or feeling. For the most part, we’re lucky at my school to have students that might want to please us, that are polite and wish to do well by us, but still, we’ll never really know how they feel about their experience in our classrooms.

This is why it is always so precious when we get the “behind the scenes” account from a parent or caretaker. This is exactly what happened to a dear colleague of mine, someone who will unfortunately be leaving our school. A parent came up to her to tell her that her child (a middle schooler) was very quiet on the way home after hearing that my colleague (a music teacher who puts on incredible school shows that involve live music, several choirs, theater and dance) would not be returning next year. This parent went on to say that once they got home, their child rested their head on their mother’s shoulder and cried for a good 15 minutes.

My colleague was shocked and ever so touched. She had no idea that this student would react that way. She knew the student to be polite, kind and a good participant in the school show, but she didn’t think that her departure would produce this kind of reaction in them.

That’s the thing though isn’t it? We will most likely NEVER know what we mean (or meant) to our students. We will most likely never know that we’ve made a difference in their lives. And that’s exactly why we have to treat each one of them with the upmost respect and consideration. That’s why this job is NOT for those that seek medals and awards. We do this job because we love making a difference, even if we will most likely never know what kind of difference we have made.

This is why we have to constantly question the techniques that we use in our classroom for differentiation and most especially for discipline. The way we speak to our students has the ability to make or break them. That’s a lot of power to give a person and there’s a big responsibility that comes with it.

So as I enjoy my summer break, I’m also taking the time to reflect on how my daily teaching habits might “make or break” my students. What could I do differently? How might I improve myself? And I don’t mean, “How might I improve my teaching practice?” I’m thinking more along the lines of how I can improve my character. How can I become a better human being? Because in the end, it all starts with our ability to communicate in healthy ways that nurture those around us. And we can only do that if we have a healthy relationship with ourselves.

That’s all for now fellow teachers! Wishing you a lovely break!

Danielle