A Ride?

Last Friday I parked my motorcycle in front of the new performing arts center at Shawnee High School and prepared to enter the building for my first meetings of the new school year. As I entered the building I thought about how different my expectations were from a year ago. Last year I was coming back from one of the most difficult years of my life. I was convinced I had lost it as a teacher, and I was not sure if I wanted to teach anymore. I lacked confidence and was not sure that I had what it takes to be effective with today's middle schoolers. I did know that I did not want to be a terrible teacher.

So, with a terrible year behind me, I worked hard, real hard. I did everything I could to teach well, to win hearts and minds and to make a lasting impact on the lives of my students. I thought I had made a lot of progress toward becoming the effective teacher that I felt like I once was. While spending my summer at Falls Creek as the recreation director I would occasionally see one of my students. In fact, I actually looked forward to seeing them and finding out how their summer was going.

So it was with a glad heart that I walked into the beginning of my new school year. When I got through the doors I saw a colleague of mine from the 7th grade team. I was a bit surprised to see her because I was almost 20 minutes early. When she saw me she walked over to me and said, "I saw some of our students the other day and they had some wonderful things to say about you. You may even be their hero!"

In spite of my desire to yell, "TELL ME WHAT THEY SAID!!!" I played it off with an understated, "Oh, really?" I thought Yesss! Someone is going to say that I was a great teacher because I worked hard to make great lessons that inspired my students to aspire to greatness. Maybe they would say that they learned a lot, or that they felt like they understood geography a bit better. Any of those would things help to confirm that my teaching career was headed in the right direction.

My colleague smiled at me and said, "Yes Trent, I ran into several of your students and they said that you were great because when you saw them at Falls Creek this summer you gave them a ride on your golf cart."

Really?!? Great because of a golf cart ride? I was disappointed, but I was careful not let it show. I smiled at my fellow teacher and said, "Yip, they do love those golf carts." Then I began developing a new plan to make this year even better than any that had come before. I felt like it was foolproof. It might even get me teacher of the year sometime... All I need is a golf cart that fits in my classroom.