Remember Why You Teach

Home Learning: First Day of "School"

Today was the first day of "school", that is "Home Learning" school. A morning video on Youtube was waiting to greet my students at 8 a.m. Assignments and videos, slideshows and Google Docs were ready to be worked on.

I had no idea how the students would respond. Would any of them even get on the computer? Do they still want to learn? Do they still care what their teachers have to say?

They got on the computer. They worked their butts off. And somehow, in a way, they even seemed excited to see their teacher.

In times when we are planning for a lesson, reading books and collecting resources, filming yourself teaching a lesson and posting it to Youtube, it is very easy to forget why we do all this work. It can be monotonous, quiet, and often times done alone.

When school was closed, all the fun of teaching went with it. Students are what make teaching, teaching. They are the sole reason we do it. They are the motivation to grade countless papers, make copies at 5:30 after school, and answer the same questions over, and over, and over, and over (ie what time is lunch?)

Seeing my students today working on their computers, sharing videos with their pets and siblings, excited about this new challenge, reminded me why I became a teacher. 

Whenever you're having a difficult day, a parent sends you that one email that you didn't see coming, or you have spent the past 4 hours in a chair creating a remote learning experience for your students during a worldwide pandemic, remember why you do it. The students.