Why I Teach

Today is the third day of school, and today, during my first class of the day, I was suddenly reminded of several things.  The first was several reasons why teaching is difficult--students who won't stop whispering, calling out, etc.  but then there were a few things that reminded me of why I love to teach.  I spent ten minutes in class today quickly memorizing all my students' names.  I forced myself to be able to say them in any order, and to call them by the names they wanted to be called by.  As I correctly listed them off, one girl grinned and said, "That's the first time anyone has remembered my name."  I'm always surprised at how impressed my students are when I know their names in the first week of school.  Although sitting there while I repeat their names over and over again to memorize them isn't very exciting, I start to see a change come over a few of the faces in the crowd.  It's most obvious in the shyer students, the ones that never say anything, so it takes longest to learn their names usually.  The look of surprise on most of my students' faces when I take class time to learn their names can best be articulated as, "Oh!  You actually care about getting my name right.  Cool."  At the age of 13, they all need more adults that care enough to learn their names.
   
But the reason that means even more to me came when I was explaining pronouns and antecedents.  Antecedent is a big scary word, and the definitions of the two words do little to explain their meanings or functions if one isn't adept at extracting meaning from definition.  But the concept is actually surprisingly simple.  The trick is explaining it right.  Today, I did it right.  I knew I had when, just at the part of my lesson I had hoped would make the idea crystal clear for them, one of the smart alecs in my class suddenly blurted out in surprise, "Oh, I understand!"
 
What's much harder for me to explain than antecedents is the sense of joy and fulfillment I get from seeing their surprise and grudging respect when I learn their names.  One of the best feelings I know in the world is when my students grasp something that most people think is hard, especially if I can credit it partially to the way I explained it.  I don't know if it's a selfish thrill or not, but I love to see them soften toward school and learning and start to succeed.  I love it when I help them see that it's actually easy.
   
In that way, we feed off each other, my students and me.  They need the sense of success and accomplishment that comes from coming to know that they can succeed, and I need the sense of success and accomplishment that comes from showing them that they can succeed.
 
So, if you'll excuse me, I have to go plan a lesson on verbs.