What I LOVE About Junior High Students
1. They are fabulously creative. I am always overjoyed with the creativity and energy of my creative writing students. The year has just begun, but already they are using similes, participles, and noun absolutes in their writing. They take simple writing prompts and turn them into adventures, tall tales, and just overwhelmingly great stuff.
2. They are loud, really loud, the first day of school. The energy level on the first day of school this year was palpable. The air was filled with electricity as the students eagerly opened up new notebooks, sharpened new pencils, and talked to new and old friends. They truly do enjoy each other and (even though they will deny it) they love school.
3. They really want to please and do the right thing. When they realize that they have not done their homework or that they have done it wrong, their faces fall, they apologize, and they try better the next time. All I usually have to say to get a kid to correct behavior is "I don't like that" or "I don't allow that in my classroom."
4. They love running errands, being asked to clean the hallway, and helping the teacher out. When I asked for students to do certain jobs in my classroom, their hands shot into the air. When Coach Jacquet asks for hall cleaners, every child wants to do it. They want to be viewed as helpful.
5. They are too funny (intentionally and unintentionally). They can truly forget to bring all of their books to class. Some bring every book in their lockers to class. Papers fly off their desks for no apparent reason, pens fly out of their hands, they trip over their own two feet; sometimes they are an interesting, humorous symphony of motion. Every day I laugh heartily at something that happens in my classroom.
6. They are just so cute-- they laugh at my stupid jokes, they ask for me to tell "Mr. Denton stories," they orchestrate beautifully simple devotionals, they ask for me to pray for their cats, dogs, their siblings going off to college, and their great-aunt's friend who has the flu, they thank me at the end of the day, they timidly say hello to me in the hallway and run away when they see me in the mall--
In short, I love these silly, awkward, cutie pies. Why would anyone want to teach any other age?
2. They are loud, really loud, the first day of school. The energy level on the first day of school this year was palpable. The air was filled with electricity as the students eagerly opened up new notebooks, sharpened new pencils, and talked to new and old friends. They truly do enjoy each other and (even though they will deny it) they love school.
3. They really want to please and do the right thing. When they realize that they have not done their homework or that they have done it wrong, their faces fall, they apologize, and they try better the next time. All I usually have to say to get a kid to correct behavior is "I don't like that" or "I don't allow that in my classroom."
4. They love running errands, being asked to clean the hallway, and helping the teacher out. When I asked for students to do certain jobs in my classroom, their hands shot into the air. When Coach Jacquet asks for hall cleaners, every child wants to do it. They want to be viewed as helpful.
5. They are too funny (intentionally and unintentionally). They can truly forget to bring all of their books to class. Some bring every book in their lockers to class. Papers fly off their desks for no apparent reason, pens fly out of their hands, they trip over their own two feet; sometimes they are an interesting, humorous symphony of motion. Every day I laugh heartily at something that happens in my classroom.
6. They are just so cute-- they laugh at my stupid jokes, they ask for me to tell "Mr. Denton stories," they orchestrate beautifully simple devotionals, they ask for me to pray for their cats, dogs, their siblings going off to college, and their great-aunt's friend who has the flu, they thank me at the end of the day, they timidly say hello to me in the hallway and run away when they see me in the mall--
In short, I love these silly, awkward, cutie pies. Why would anyone want to teach any other age?
posted by Jami | 9:56 AM
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