A perk to the job

Well, the first few days back have been pretty good. I must say that beyond the high possibility of stress, impossible tests, and a never-ending to-do list, teaching has some major perks. Yes, there's the obvious ones - summers off and...(maybe that's the only obvious one), but anyways there's lots more that are pretty great. One, I realized anew today. It's been tough getting back - hard to return after getting a taste of a summer-like schedule again, and then the kids are very focused and are out of their routine. But today, there was a bright spot! One of my tougher kids started getting my jokes. I usually will say random things here and there throughout the day that most kids don't catch b/c they're not paying attention or they just don't understand so they just stare at me. I don't know what it was, but this one kid just thought I was so funny today. He would laugh when no one else was even getting it and it was just fun. They say one of the best ways to motivate children to get them to do what you want them to do (i.e. learn!) is to simply love and respect them and in turn earn their love and respect. This takes time and intentional comments, conversation, and actions but the returns are immense. So this gave me hope into the feat of earning this sweet but tough little boy's admiration. All in all, a good day and good to be back. :)