So this is what it feels like...

During our student teaching seminar a few weeks ago we were asked a question. I don't remember exactly what the question was, something akin to "describe your teaching experience in one word," or maybe something about our philosophies of education. A lot of the answers, including mine, were focussed on the craft, how we set up our lessons, etc. Jayme's word was "joy."

This made me feel jealous and guilty all at once. We were probably a month into student teaching, and by that time I had not experienced anything I would have called joy in my classes. We'd had fun with a few lessons, there were a few lessons that I thought really kicked my students in the ass and woke them up, but nothing that made me walk away from school with a smile on my face. I'm tough to please, though, so I don't think I really expected it anyway, not until Jayme said something.

But finally, after about 12 weeks of teaching, I walked away from school with a smile in my heart. My back was sore from standing half stooped over all day and I was tired, but I finally came away from a school day feeling the same way I do after getting lost in a good Motown record for a while. (Let me humbly suggest the Temptations Gettin' Ready or Meet The Temptations. Any greatest hits disc will do you good too.)

There was nothing spectacular about today. Mrs. Teacher 2 was sick and left lesson plans for the two classes that I haven't taken over yet, and they were really pretty light lessons. My classes were continuing to do research in the library, so with them I had to just keep them on track. I was pleasantly surprised to see most of them making good headway and didn't need to give them too much guidance.

The two lessons with the other classes were about as simple as could be, and I barely had to talk besides reciting the directions if I didn't want to. But I wanted to. I haven't worked directly with them very much, so we don't know each other well, but I could tell that they were anxious to change that. How much more flattering can a group of teenagers be to an adult?

And with that kind of open gesture coming from a group of 15 year olds, how on Earth could I not return the favor and put as much energy and creativity as I had into their lesson on prepositions? What would have been a slightly cute (but still boring) lesson on prepositions with a short passage from Dr. Seuss became a shout-out-loud contest to see who could get through a tongue-twister fastest. There was no great epiphany about what it takes to enjoy my job, but for the first time I walked out from work thinking about how much fun we just had and that I can't wait to get back to them tomorrow.