“YOU GET TO BUILD THAT RELATIONSHIP”
“What I really loved about being at Montessori and here [in my current position] is that I have the same group repeatedly, that I really get to track those students—whereas when I did my my initial certification in elementary Ed, if you were a second grade classroom teacher you have them for a year. Then you wish them luck and you send them off, and maybe they come back and visit you if you're still in the same building.”
“But at Montessori we had three-year grade levels that were combined classrooms and so you had them for 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade. And it was a small school. At that point there was a middle school and I would coach, so I saw them as 7th and 8th graders. So once I met them as 4th graders, I really tracked them all the way through until they went to high school, and you could just see their growth. And you created such a relationship with them because you had so much time with them.”
“And here [in my current position], I feel like that's also true. I am the only ENL teacher, which is good and bad. That’s for K-12. So when a student tests in, they are my student and I have them continuously. What I love about that is that you get to build that relationship and you really get to see their growth, whether it's on their yearly English exams or just their confidence, and you get to see them grow year to year. You can celebrate their successes, when you met them in middle school and then in high school you see them playing sports or being in a concert, and you’re able to support them in other areas. Sort of combined with that is [that] it's a relatively small school. I have relatively small class sizes, so I can go to their soccer game or their band concert and really be involved, and see them be successful—that way if math isn't their thing, then I can cheer them on in volleyball.”
“THEY BECOME MY KIDS”
“Sometimes I think my family wonders why I attend all the band concerts, chorus concerts, soccer games at the beginning of a season. I'm like, ‘Okay—I have girls on the volleyball team, I have boys on the soccer team, but they become my kids.
“A lot of these kids (…) don't have someone coming to support them. And so when the rest of the team looks in the stands, or the musicians on stage look out into the auditorium, I also want them to feel like they have someone there for them, cheering them on.”
“The next day, guaranteed, they'll be, ‘Thanks for coming to my game’ or they'll acknowledge that it was important to them. So maybe the student feedback—maybe that's what makes me happy, knowing that it matters to them.”
“IT’S A SAFE SPACE”
“And then it's a safe space (…) After the 2:20 to 3:00 time period, students are invited to stay and do homework and this room always has kids in here. And I think that makes me feel good, too, that they know that this is a safe space that they can come to. And I work hard to make that environment for them. I like to know that they can come here (..) It sort of makes me sad that they don't feel that they can go to any room, but I'm glad that they have the space here.”