Summer School: Day 1

As the long Memorial Day weekend drew to a close and the first day of summer school drew near, I began to wonder why I had volunteered for the job. Hadn’t I just last week completed 10 grueling months of teaching? Why would I want to add another three weeks (minus a day) to my school year? Yeah, there’s the issue of money, but how much money is working three more weeks worth? Certainly not what they’re paying me!

So it was with a less-than-enthusiastic attitude that I stepped into the school building this morning. I was counting the minutes until the day would end and I would be free to do whatever I wanted to do.

However, something happened between 8 a.m. and the departure of the students at 1:30 p.m. During the teaching of the math portion of our multidisciplinary unit (based on Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars), I got thoroughly excited. Math is not my favorite subject and many of the students at our school struggle with mathematical concepts. But I wrote, and helped the students work through, four word problems involving ratios and proportions. Here’s one example:

Even though one of Annemarie’s shoes came untied as she sped along the street called Ǿsterbrogade, she still ran faster than her friend Ellen. In half a minute, Annemarie ran 200 meters. Ellen ran the same distance in three-quarters of a minute.
a. How many meters per second did Annemarie run?
b. How many meters per second did Ellen run?

What a thrill it was to watch “the lights go on” in at least four of the 19 students as they began to understand how to set up ratios and proportions to solve problems. Of course, there were a couple of students who dozed or looked at me with glazed eyes during the lesson, but they couldn’t take away the joy I felt at having reached the others.

After the school-day ended, I dashed off this short but jubilant e-mail to a dear friend, also a teacher:

Just finished my first day of summer school. I’m tired, but while I was “on,” I was thoroughly engaged and enjoyed working with the students. Before today, I was wondering what kind of masochist I was to be teaching summer school. Now that the first day is over, I’m ready to go back. I do believe I “belong” in the classroom!

Belonging in the classroom. Belonging to a community. Belonging to a family. Belonging to someone special. A sense of belonging is hard to beat. It’s what gives life meaning, and I’m ready to go back into the classroom tomorrow.

It’s where I belong.