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Describe a recent time when you’ve been discouraged with a student’s progress. Have you witnessed a change in the student’s life, or are you still waiting for that change to occur?
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I have had a couple students this year that have not progressed as much as I thought they would have. There does not seem to be a lot of parent support at home for the extras and we do not have the resources to overcome these challenges. I can see the potential that these students have but lack the motivation to try. I have prayed for them and guidance as I can get frustrated at the lack of support.
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This year I had a student that was struggling with several learning disabilities such as dyslexia and dysgraphia, as well as very minimal fine motor skills. This student was super happy and tried his very best everyday. I enjoyed him so much; although, I did not see much progress academically in the classroom. He was in several different therapy sessions each week to help him grow in several areas, which meant he was pulled out of the classroom often. After only teaching him for just a few months, his family pulled him out of our private Christian school during Christmas vacation and put him into a public school with more services available for him. It makes my heart sad that he will not be poured into spiritually now in his new classroom, but I’m also hopeful that he will get more services for his learning needs. I am very torn. God has a mighty plan for his life and is absolutely in control. I know this. I know the progress he will make over the next several years academically with be exponential, but my heart longs for him to have Christian educators pouring Jesus into him daily as well.
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I was recently discouraged with a student’s progress this school year and had many conversations with the parents. Being a special education teacher sometimes these conversations can be very difficult. After talking to the parents and helping them work through the challenges we were able to get this student set up with all the therapies she needs and she has grown alot.
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I’m still waiting for that change to occur. I’m not sure if the change is as important as is my faithfulness to what God has called me to do. I’m realizing it’s more about my faithfulness and giving the rest of it (including outcomes) over to God. If I look at the past an indicator of the future, I realize whether a person embraces Christ or not, has very little to do with me. I’ve seen kids raised in a Christian home, reject Christ and walk away from the church completely. I’ve also seen kids who weren’t raised in a Christian home, who were abandoned and abused, only to accept Christ and dedicate themselves to the Lord. How do you explain this? It makes no sense in our thinking. Again, the outcome is not for me to determine, only the input that He’s called me to give.
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I have a student now who is extremely behind in her studies. Our school’s learning support program isn’t great and I have a new teaching partner in my grade level this year that hasn’t done any planning, but is just taking from me. So I haven’t had time to really differentiate for her and the learning support teacher hasn’t done a great job with her because she is distracted and has many other students. On top of that, this student’s mom has her invested in figure skating, so she is up late practicing and goes to international competitions. Even with tutoring 3 days after school, the differentiation I can provide for her, and an at home tutor, she has made some progress, but is still very far behind and thinks a lot about figure skating. I hope she will make more progress and become more focused this next semester.