My student came back to class today. She was out all week with a broken rib after her father hit her. She was supposed to come back on Wednesday but she wasn’t ready so they waited until yesterday. She walked into class with the biggest smile in the world. Her arm was in a sling but she was not taking any deep breaths like she was last weekend. She sat down and participated in the class like nothing happened. She’s so cool.
After school, she walked into my classroom and handed me a note and an envelope. In the envelope was a gift certificate to a nice Italian restaurant from her mother. She told me to take my girlfriend and daughter out to dinner this weekend. The note was her thanking me for recognizing she was in pain and acting on it. She knew she could trust me and my actions went a long way for her, knowing she can go to someone she trusts if she is in distress. She wrote me a similar letter last week but it was her reiterating what she said.
She gave me a hug and left and I closed the door and cried a little bit. She is very strong for a 12-year-old. I can tell this event is not going to affect her greatly. Her mother is working harder to be open with her and she has a good family support system. Her father is in jail and will be for a long time. She’s a special kid. She is by far my favorite student.
I am ready to move on to the next chapter of my life, April 29, 2023
I have been teaching middle school history for the past 14 years and I feel like I have reached the point where I need a new challenge. Teaching the same course for nearly 15 years has worn me out and I decided I want something else. I applied for a position at a high school in my district where I taught for the first five years and today I received the phone call that I got the job. I will be teaching U.S. history to 11th graders and I am honestly excited. They want me to take over the A.P. United States history course in the future, which I am okay with. The new curriculum and scene are enticing to me and I feel like I will be able to be myself in my new classroom.
I will miss my colleagues and my students. There is a chance I will be their teacher again in the future but that is not going to be for a while. This year was the most eventful year of my career. Dealing with bomb threats, school shooting threats, a 15-person fight in a nearby classroom that spilled over into MY classroom, and an incident where I reported a parent for child abuse has worn me down. I love this school but I want to move on to the next phase of my life. I plan on proposing to my girlfriend this summer. We want to have another child and finally buy a house. We both will receive raises this year and I genuinely believe she is the one I want to spend my life with. I am thinking of coaching baseball again if my schedule allows for it. I am happy. My life is busy but I feel like I am building a good life for myself.
TOP COMMENT
I do hate how far they take it in some cases. I’m not sure how common it is, but my university has a whole laundry list of bias incidents and such that we’re also mandated reporters for (to be clear, these are adults, and this isn’t even necessarily anything that could be legally actionable). And some of that I think needs a little more nuance. It never came up, but I figured out a script to warn people if it seemed like they were going to tell me something I’d have to report. They should have the choice of whether or not they’re going to have to deal with campus admin/PD.
REPLY
The only difference in the UK is that it’s less of a bright line. Yes, you legally have to, but our training includes reminders to let the child know that what they say is not in confidence and that you’re going to let others at school know. (And that it’s not automatically a police matter; it is initially dealt with by the specially-trained Designated Safeguarding Lead and their team within school.)
The thing is, that’s really hard to do every time, especially as it’s only my second year in the classroom! I fucked this up on the last day of term with an 11-year-old pupil because a) the lesson was manic because 11-year-olds were before Christmas and b) it was one of those more nuanced ones and I realised I needed to report it after she’d gone. Just got to trust that your colleagues have got it from there (which I do!) and that it won’t damage your relationship with the kid too much.
RESPONCE
Yeah, I rarely interact with kids (if they’re on a tour, usually), but I feel like a university professor/instructor/staff should be able to talk to someone about, say, dealing with racism/transphobia/homophobia/whatever without being required to then report it to another department to follow up. It should be a resource, but I don’t like the lack of flexibility when everyone involved are adults and the person being affected may just want an ear to listen.
