Tribute to Teachers

I said this two years ago, when I was in South Africa, teaching Math and English to 8th grade students, but man, how I took/take my teachers for granted. All those times I thought I was getting away with texting, not paying attention, and showing up to class unprepared, but man, is it frustrating to be a teacher!

Today in class, we started part 2 of an introduction to programming. On Friday, we started the concepts, did quite a few exercises, and today, I expected the students to remember some of it. Some students just needed a little nudge and reminder, but others stared at me like I was talking rocket science (to some of them - I probably was). While programming concepts do feel like rocket science at first, the same students who wanted me to baby them through the warm up were the same students playing some kind of Mexican cookie game on the computer, watching Youtube videos in class, or Snapchatting their friends (yes they do that here in Mexico).

I wanted to shake them. "Have you NOT been paying attention?!"

One particular girl, looked at me every second as she moved her mouse in a programming development environment using flowcharts called Raptor, and wanted confirmation on everything she was doing.

Here is how our conversation went:

Student - I need help. I don´t know where to start.
Me - Ok, do you remember last Friday what we did?
Student - Umm, not really
Me - Ok, remember where we wanted to input two numbers and find the bigger number?
Student - Yeah...
Me - So it´s basically the same thing now. What is your first step?
Student - Uh... I dont´t know. Can you just tell me?

She proceeded to stare at me as I attempted to remind her what we did on Friday and give her hints, but nothing was clicking.

Here is another conversation:

Student 2: Miss, I need help.
Me: (They have nothing on their screen) Ok, do you remember last Friday what we did?
Student: No, I wasn´t here.
Me: Oh ok, where were you?
Student: I was playing volleyball with my friends and lost track of time and didn´t want to come to class.

So here I am, in one of the best high schools in Mexico, dumbfounded that these students don´t listen, waste their time, and then expect me to baby them and tell them all the answers. I was so frustrated at one point, that I just wanted to leave the classroom.

But then, I realized that I was one of those students growing up (not all the time, but it definitely happened). I treated my teachers the exact way that my students are treating me, and man does it make me angry. I realized that there is a good half of the class who wants to learn, who is getting it, that doesn´t get noticed. I realized that to some of these students, this really is rocket science, and they´re 17 years old.

To every teacher out there, thank you for all you do. Thank you for putting up with me and my "stealthy" texting habits. Thank you for your continued patience, day after day, when students don´t understand or remember the very thing you spent so much time on. Thank you for putting in incredible hours and finish the week feeling like no one cared. Thank you for your passion and persistence in showing up every day both physically and mentally, prepared to teach a bunch of uninterested students a subject that they don´t care about. Thank you thank you thank you.