My Last Day at the Jr. High

Today was my last day at the Waverly-Shell Rock Jr. High as the Tuesday afternoon tutor. Over the past few months I have spent over sixty hours with the students in their study halls and after school. I am not sure how much the students learned from me but I sure did learn a lot from them. Just like any other experience in a school, some of the students really touched my heart while others only frustrated me. Here is a list of a few things that I learned:

1.) Most Jr. High students have this thing called a “Jr. High brain”.

2.) Students will claim they can’t do something when they know that they can, they just want to hear you tell them they can do it.

3.) Students will tell you they do not have homework, just because they would rather sit and chat with their friends in study hall.

4.) Building trust with your students is very important, once you have their trust you can get them to do just about anything.

5.) Sometimes, all the student needs is someone to talk to. I spent many of my tutoring sessions just talking about what was on the students mind. (School, family, the future, sports, peers, world happenings, ect)

6.) Buying a new book for a student can open up the great world of reading in their life. Heck, my after school students, we had a little book club.

7.) Take interest in the students. Even though I was torturing math, I spent a great deal of time in the art room seeing the latest master pieces.

8.) Spending time with Jr. High students, you always have to be on your toes!

9.) It just kills students not to know your first name.

10.) I will miss all of those students!

During my time there I was told by one student that I should become a “real” teacher and not just a study hall teacher. I told him that was great idea. Another one narrowed it down to a science teacher. So it must be my place. J I took one of my students snowshoeing and he loved it, he asked to go again sometime. The last thing that I learned was that being a teacher could be a 24/7 job, if you let it. There are so many things to get involved in, how do you choose?