Teaching Tales

Several of my friends who are teachers have posted funny blogs about their students, so I thought I'd do the same, even though my kiddos are college students.

On Friday, the kids (I call them "kids," even though they're 18) were in an unusually good mood. I teach at 1:00 p.m. MWF, so by the end of the week they're pretty dead; they had just turned in a major paper the class before, so they were still riding that "My paper is all turned in!" high. I must give a brief bit of back story before I continue... Most days I'm in the classroom by 12:45 so I can set up my lesson and meet the kids as they wander in, and everyday I lock the door at 1:00 so I won't have kids ambling in at five-after.

However, I was running late on Friday. I planned to facilitate an in-class activity with a DVD clip, and I was borrowing the DVD from another professor who teaches at noon. So, in the process of meeting her after her class and procuring the DVD, I arrived at my classroom at 12:58. I didn't realize how late I was, and as soon as I walked into the room all 17 of my students were staring me in the face. I smiled and apologized for being late, and one of my students jokingly replied, "We were about to lock the door on you!" I kindly thanked them for their vigilance and began teaching. It's nice to know that my kids noticed -- and cared -- when I wasn't there.

In the middle of my lesson, one student interrupted me by asking, "Ms. Voss, are you sick?" I answered yes and told them that I have an icky sinus infection. "Oh, Ms. Voss," a number of students replied, "you need to go home and get some rest so you can feel better! It's alright with us if you cancel class today... anything we can do to help you get well." I smiled and thanked them for their "kindness," and continued on with my lesson.

Those little moments when my students show that they care about me as their teacher -- even if they have weird ways of showing it -- make it all worth it.