Winter time blues

Winter time blues

It is easy to get the winter time blues, especially as a teacher.  The days are short, the nights are long, and everything seems dreary.  Students are back from Christmas break.  The new has worn off the school year, and spring break seems forever away.  Despite having a semester left, seniors are already turning off their brains, wishing for school to be done and acting like it is.

Some are already making plans for next year, and high school just doesn't seem important anymore.

It is during these dark days that teachers, staff, and yes, even students, need a little encouragement.  I want to relay two stories of such encouragement - partly for myself and partly for you, my faithful reader (Craig probably).

Story 1 

A couple of weeks ago, a few of my former students came to see me.  They are now seniors, but I taught them as freshmen.  They had apparently been cleaning out a notebook that one of them had freshman year and wanted to know (jokingly) if they could hand in some work for a late grade.  I told them no, but started a conversation with them.  

I asked how their senior year was going and who their science teachers were.  Two of them are taking forensics (with different teachers).  I don't teach forensics, but I talk to my fellow teachers and know more or less what they are doing in class.  I knew that they had just done a lab on analyzing blood splatter.  I asked my former students what they were doing in class, and they told me that they were learning about just that, blood splatter.

"That class is so cool Mr. Ingram.  We love it."

Anyhow, these students told this to me, but I'm sure they'd never tell their teachers.  I relayed this story to each of their teachers because I know teachers need to hear good news once in awhile (especially in February.)

Story 2

Last week, I got an email from the central office praising some of the students in the county.  I feel free to share a bit about one of these students because it was part of a Floyd County School press release.  

"Ryan Lamb, a senior from Pepperell High School, won for Graphic Design in the junior/senior category."

Anyhow, I usually ignore these press releases and quickly hit the delete button, but for some reason, the day I got this message, I decided to send Ryan a more personal word of praise.  I sent him a short email.  He is a student at Pepperell, where I taught for the last six years, but this year I have moved to the College and Career Academy.   Anyhow, Ryan sent me a very thoughtful reply including an image he is working on now for the state competition.  I don't feel like I can share that here because it is his work and still a work in progress, but it was nice to see what he was doing.

He also sent me a word of praise saying that he missed seeing me around Pepperell and missed the enthusiasm that I showed.  Like I said, it is always nice to hear (or read) praise, but I especially needed to hear this in February when I don't feel so enthusiastic either.

Here are a couple of things that I thought about my exchange with Ryan.  

1. As teachers, we often get discouraged with students and don't expect enough from them.  
2. Students that are just average in one area can be great in others.
3. Students pay attention to their teacher's attitudes as much as (or more than) they pay attention to class content.
4. On the other extreme, teachers sometimes expect too much of students.  

Ryan sent me a very thoughtful reply, and my first thought was to notice a grammatical error in it.  It is weird that as a teacher we sometimes expect too much and sometimes too little of the students all at the same time.

Anyhow, "do not be weary in well doing."