Entering a classroom as a young college student can be intimidating, it is hard to establish authority.
However, I have been so lucky with my internship students. I am shown an incredible amount of respect. To them I am another teacher, I have an equal value to their other teachers. Even when there is a problem with disrespect, if I address the situation, the student quickly changes their behavior.
Another reason to praise these students is their willingness to work with me. They are always up to try new activities that I find and want to test out. Not only that, they are very understanding and will assist if I mess up or if they think something will work better another way. They love helping me get good grades and are always on their best behavior when they know I am being observed.
In addition to everything else they do for me, they make me feel special on a personal level. Every day, when the students walk in the classroom, they are so excited to see me and I never fail to get one hug. I hear multiple times that they wish I was there every day. On my birthday, the number of cards, hugs, and kind words I received was incredible. When I get down in the dumps with the struggles and paperwork of teaching in school, they keep me going.
I am incredibly blessed to have a class that makes teaching a pleasure and I feel so loved. If only all of my classes can always be like this. My hopes for them are that I have made some sort of impact on them and they will remember the days that I came in and did crazy and fun lessons with them.
