My Three Promises to My Students

Well Friday officially marked the first day back to school. Aside from the lack of sleep and the nerves I was having trouble controlling, it all went down without a hitch. Being that this was my official first day of school as a teacher I was terrified of how the day would go. What if I run out of things to talk about? What if I have nothing for them to do? What if they don't listen to me? The questions floating around my head were endless. However, something crazy happened the moment those new fourth graders walked through that door. Instead of being worried and freaked out I remember I was a teacher and that I knew how to do this job. All of my worries went away and I just did what I was good at, I was a teacher.

I did the normal first day of school rules, consequences, unloaded back packs and did a classroom tour. However I also did something that to me was the most important thing I may do all year. I made promises to my students, three promises that I will spend all year doing my best to keep.

My first promise is that I will never embarrass them for making a mistake, because we all know Miss, Bolton is going to make a lot of those this year. We are a family and family doesn't make fun of mistakes. They learn from them and encourage their family to correct them,

Second promise is that no matter what they are doing in class I will never call them out for doing something wrong. This one is a big one. I caught myself last year, saying across the room Hey so and so stop doing that. Everyone in the room then turned and looked at that student and two things would happen. One they would get embarrassed and then would act out more. Or second they would enjoy the attention and continue to do it. I told them that if I do that I will apologize and try to never let it happen again. In my class I will walk over and only talk to that student so only we know what is being said.

Finally the third promise is that when they walk through that door they are my family and I will always love them. We may not get along, we may drive each other crazy but at the end of the day I will love them. This one made the boys laugh and some of their faces got red, but they understood that in my class they were going to be loved and protected. Hugs will always be given out, Good Mornings will always be said and high fives are welcomed.

My class is my kids since I don't have any and last year I made a lot of mistakes. Embarrassed kids when I shouldn't have and didn't say I love you enough. That is going to change, from now on it is less about being the best teacher and more about being a better human. The teaching part is important, but not as important as the impact I am going to have on my students.

I am going to make mistakes this year and so will my fourth graders, but going into a year knowing this will make us more prepared for the mistakes. We are not perfect and thank god for that. Being perfect is boring and in no way do I want to be perfect. I want to be the teacher that down the road my students remember and not for what I taught them in the classroom, but for how I made them feel while they were in it.

Until next time,

Miss. B