Former Students

You know you are loved as a teacher when your former students willingly give up one of their precious Saturdays to come help proctor a MATHCOUNTS competition. Luckily I had kept past email addresses and sent out a request for volunteers. At first I wasn’t sure if I would get any takers. Then one or two would respond. Some even took the time to tell me that they would have loved to help but had prior commitments. They also added to contact them again when another need arises. Still others told me that they were going to come even if I had enough volunteers. They wanted to come see me. Anyways, before I knew it, I had as many proctors as I had competitors. Half of these volunteers weren’t even past MATHCOUNTS mathletes.

If you had asked me my first couple of years of teaching what the most important part of my job was, I would have answered with getting the students to learn math. I would have also added that I was not at school to be their mother. I soon realized that building and nurturing a positive relationship is as important as covering the content. Feeling respected and valued is what people remember from their middle school years; not necessarily how to apply the Pythagorean Theorem appropriately. But you know what? If they feel that you care about them, they will want to learn math and do the work, if for anything, to please you.

My current 8th grade students have already asked if they could come back next year and volunteer. I could not have asked for a better compliment.

Happy 7th Birthday, my sweet Madeline!!