There are moments in teaching where everything around you has turned to custard.
Resources arrive late, there’s a big event happening and the technology isn’t playing ball.
Yep you read right.
Even us technology enthusiasts have days where we wonder out loud after having plans and back up plans fall through.
The classroom is in disarray and we seethe.
Technology was supposed to make teaching easier but it is throwing up more problems than solutions.
Is it really worth all this hassle?
And there’s that kid.
The kid who you spent a lot of time on restorative conversations, the kid who is often in ‘trouble,’ the kid who puts in the bare minimum on a good day.
Yep that one.
At 8pm that kid emails through a video created not because it was on the homework sheet or because you said so.
But for the joy of it.
This kid is doing things you haven’t taught and using resources you hadn’t gotten around to showing the class.
You realise that one teaspoon at a time there’s a shift in this kid’s perception of learning. The tech is helping that kid in ways you don’t know because you were too busy being stressed by what wasn’t working today to notice what was going well in the classroom.
After that you know you’ll go another 10 rounds of classroom madness just to get that something awesome out of that kid…
Teaching the Teacher 
Reblogged this on So, You Think You Can Teach ESL?.
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I am reading a book right now about a teacher that felt this very way. She felt it so strongly that it led her to quit teaching. It’s quite a look into the daily struggles of her students and her in a system that she just could not fight anymore. Breaking the Silence is the book, author is Shannon Hernandez, her site is http://www.myfinal40days.com. It’s a great read on this.
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