Sudden Impact

"A teacher affects eternity. He can never tell where his influence stops." ~Henry Adams

Every teacher needs to be told this statement and fully believe in its power. However, a teacher can be anyone in any walk of life. You don't have to have your teaching certificate and be standing in front of a classroom full of children every day to apply this to your life. Every being affects someone in some way and usually you don't even realize how.

I think back to 2002 when I graduated college with my teaching degree. I was 22 and ready to make a difference in this world! "The children are our future!" as the saying goes. I was so excited and gung-ho about getting in there and really impacting their lives each and every day and having them appreciate me for it! Little did I know that these rewards are not so instant and are typically unspoken. Day in and day out over the past 9 years of greeting middle schoolers, figuring out their learning styles, planning engaging lessons for them, grading their millions of papers, pulling teeth to motivate them, spending countless hours up at school and on the weekends thinking about them, responding to their parents' emails, disciplining them, praising them, helping them, challenging them, modifying for them, and most of all, entertaining them! So much effort for so little in return, so it seems at the time. Teachers never fully know how much they have affected a student until they hear the appreciation through a simple thank you, a hug, a hand written card or a thoughtfully selected gift. Those are precious gestures to really signify a teacher's impact; however, it is important to realize that ALL students are impacted by the teacher. This could be negatively or positively and the majority of them will never let the teacher know the difference.

Throughout the years I have collected these random acts of appreciation. Each and every one means the world to me and the majority are on display in my cubicle now. These tokens keep me going, keep me caring, keep me pushing myself, and bring tears to my eyes every time I read them. I have tried my best to remember each student after they have walked out of my room at the end of each year, but now it has been over 9 years! What a difficult task! Haha, luckily, pictures help. I often look back through the yearbooks and it brings it all back. An approximate total of 1,125 students have directly sat and listened to me dish out science lesson after science lesson (and one year Texas History lessons) over the course of almost a decade. That is a lot of lives to have touched. I would often wonder how much that 50 minute class for 187 days could really influence a child and I may never know, but I want to believe each one has walked away with a fond memory.

Here is a picture of myself and of Daisy. I had Daisy the first 3 years I was teaching at West Ridge Middle School here in Austin, as a 6th grade student in my class, as a 7th grade student in my class, and she was my aide when she was in 8th grade. You can tell we spent a lot of time together when we both walked in wearing this one day! LOL Talk about being an influence! I just wish I had the red converse to rock it like she did, dang it!

Building a relationship is the most important aspect to influencing a life. I can honestly say that the first 2-3 years I taught I built the best relationships with my students. Those students stick out in my mind more so than any other year thereafter. At that time, I was just starting out. I didn't have a toolkit of lessons that I had perfected, I didn't have a clue as to where to begin or how to do it, but I did have a smile on my face and told the kids I wanted to learn with them (and meant it.) Boy did I! Those first couple of groups challenged me to grow as a learner more than any others! They were intelligent kids. The brightest stars amongst the sea of them. I was corrected many times, and I learned real quickly what they would respond to and what they wanted no part of! I also learned how to teach them the way they needed to be taught because I was learning right alongside. Because I was young, the connection came easier I believe. The girls wanted to confide in me like a friend and the boys, well the boys, were middle school boys! They wanted attention, lots of it ;-P  I had to quickly draw the lines of our relationship as student/teacher. This brought about more respect and it caused our relationships to be more fruitful. They knew I genuinely cared about them and their futures and they genuinely cared about how they treated me. My classroom climate has always been positive and productive due to this. Mutual respect goes a long way. Now, those first years of students are adults. Many in college, some married and some even have babies now! When I joined facebook, they were the first to find me and befriend me, a whole slew of them from the years of 2002-2004. When I read comments from them, I am so proud. They have turned out so well, just as I knew they would!

As the years passed on, I still built relationships, of course, but I can clearly see how the closeness, the connections, seemed to have become a bit weaker as I became more involved in perfecting my lessons. It is a hard balancing act. To be an effective teacher, it not only takes powerful lessons, but it also requires powerful impact through relationships with the kids. This is the toughest part for any adult trying to get a child to be successful. Motivation is nonexistent if the child has no connection, whether it's in the classroom, at home, or in their social lives. As adults, we must put forth the effort to reach out...to smile, to be kind, to listen, to praise, to forgive and to have fun with them. Children must see our caring through our gestures in order to believe it.

Unfortunately, many classrooms are lacking this spark. Teachers are having a harder and harder time lighting a fire in their students and they wonder why. It is simple. Each day is an opportunity to affect every single one of them. A conscious effort of saying hi at the door, asking them how their weekend was, having them write a quick journal entry about how they are doing, a quick pat on the back or a smiley face drawn on a sticky note speaks volumes to a kid. It brings about an immense sense of compassion. So, now it is my job as a coach, not only to help with instructional strategies, but to also help teachers build relationships with their students. The encouragement of making a "Super Scientist" board in their rooms, taking pictures of them to display, or even my latest project of motivation...secretly more for the teachers than the students:

 

So this is at Elgin Middle School where I spend 2 days per week working with the 6 science teachers. With the high stakes STAAR test coming up, I wanted to model for the teachers how a simple star with a kid's name on it and a little inspirational phrase could build the morale of the 8th graders and help build a relationship. I asked the librarian to have her student aides cut out about 340 stars over the course of the past 2 weeks. I got a roster of the entire 8th grade from the secretary and I went to work! My first idea was to take a picture of each kid and stick their beautiful faces on the star, but there was no way I would be allow to use that much ink when printing! So, plan B! Names are just as good as pictures :-) I think the worst part was tying the string to each individual one! After that, my grand idea was to hang them from the ceiling in the 8th grade hallway, as stars rightfully should be, but I quickly realized that was a daunting and sweaty task I was not willing to partake in for too long! The ladder was not tall enough for me to comfortably reach the panels; therefore I was hugging the wall, praying I didn't fall, while barefoot on my tip-toes trying to attach each one. I think I got through about 20 before I gave up! Taping them along the wall was a much more feasible idea! If they only knew the lengths I went through to make my vision a reality! ha

Sudden impact hit when the bell rang after 5th period was over! Hundreds of students flooded the hall and I could hear, "Wow! Look at the stars!" "Who made these?" "Where's mine/my name?" "Do we get to keep ours?"

Smiles, smiles, smiles and a whirlwind blew, kicking up the stars so they danced as the kids rushed to their next class. WINNING :-)

When I went to my office today, which is a rare occurence, I just so happened to have a piece of mail in my mailbox, another rare occurence. This piece of mail proves even further that relationships matter across the board, with students, with other teachers, with parents, with friends and even with enemies. I have made an impact yet again even though at the time I had no idea what it meant to the people I was working with. I visited Waelder ISD a total of 6 times to work with 2 administrators and 4 teachers. Seriously, 6 days, such a small number, but those 6 days brought about a huge response (well, huge to me...as in meaningful.)

After reading this, I decided to calculate how many students I have indirectly affected through this new job since August of this year, and the grand total is about 2,300!!! Awesomesauce :-)

Realizing that your impact, your influence, your modeling, your relationships, your connections greatly change the world is an amazing awareness! Open your eyes to how you touch this world. What contribution are you making? How do/will people remember you? Make each moment count with everyone you come in contact with. It could affect their day, their week, their month, their year, or their eternity...and you may never know.

"Without Courage Your Life Will Never Change." ~Me