Tuesday, January 10, 2012

One of those "Why I teach" moments

I just made a student's day.  Well, in reality, he made his own day, but he gave me credit...and I'll take it. :)  He's had an F in my class for most of the semester.  He's perfectly capable, but he just gets "distracted" easily (his word usage).  Today he took a test and did really well.  I was pleasantly surprised, actually.  Then he turned in his final project (a hoodie).  It looked REALLY good.  It was nearly perfect and one of the best I've seen.  I entered his scores on my computer and told him that his grade went from an F to an A!  He was literally dancing around the room with the biggest smile on his face.  He told me how his parents wouldn't believe it because they don't think he's good at anything and not capable of doing something like this.  He tends to be tagged as one of those jock, goof-off students that doesn't get great grades, so he was so proud of his A.

It's moments like this when I remember why I teach.  I love seeing students who don't do well in other classes succeed in mine.  I'm so glad he's learned a skill that he loves.  And the fact that he danced around my room made it that much more entertaining. :)

1 comments:

Dave Whitworth said...

Yup, that is really cool. You just know he's going to keep that hoodie for many years and it will mean everything to him. Now if he would only apply himself the same to other subjects.