Thursday, November 12, 2009

This afternoon I was working with a second grader. Joshua was having some trouble understanding the math concept of adding two two digit numbers with regrouping.

(That's "carrying" for those of us in the 40+ age group.)

I worked with him for about 15 minutes, and it was hit and miss. He wasn't consistent and my gut feeling was that he was doing a lot of guessing.

Suddenly he looked at the dry erase board he was doing the problems on, then looked at me.

I saw it in his eyes. They sparkled. He smiled really big.

"Josh, did something just click for you?"

"YES!"

He got it. We did five more problems and he breezed through them with no issues at all.

That smile and sparkle was so exciting to see.

And THAT is why I became a teacher. I wanted to see that.

I didn't become a teacher to do constant paperwork (but I know we have to do it). I didn't become a teacher to teach to "the test" (but again, I know we really don't have much of a choice). I didn't become a teacher so I could spend all day at work, then some evenings until 8:00 pm, or later (even though it's sometimes necessary).

I became a teacher because I wanted to see that "a-HA" and gleam in a child's eyes and a big grin when they "get it."

I love what I do.

6 comments:

Jac @ Wuzzle Makes Three said...

What an awesome, rewarding moment! Things like that definitely make the tougher moments worth it, don't they!

(And when did they start calling it regrouping? I'm in so much trouble when my little one starts school; I struggled enough with all that 20 years ago! LOL! )

HereWeGoAJen said...

It is carrying for me too.

My best "a-HA" moment was when I taught a kid to see the hot dog between his fingers. (You know when you hold your fingers together in front of your face, kind of cross your eyes and look past them?) I know that sounds silly, but he was a special ed student in my summer camp and we were playing with perspective tricks. The rest of the camp got it right away, but this one special ed kid worked on it all day long and I kept helping him get his hands right. All of a sudden he shouted "I see it! I see the hot dog!" He was just so proud of himself and it took him like five hours of trying.

Monica said...

PLEASE PLEASE PlEASE come to my house and get the sparkel in my son's eyes!

He hates school, afraid to ask questions and now he is in high school totally lost.

Anonymous said...

I love your stories from school!

Peg

docgrumbles said...

Sometimes I am even lucky enough to see an adult have that moment in a college class (because they were never lucky enough to have an a-ha moment while working 1:1 with an invested teacher earlier in their academic careers).

PERBS said...

That is a special moment and I am so glad you got the opportunity to see/feel the results.