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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 had a student in the spring who was really lost because of some horrible events that were happening in his life. I had tried to support him and be a place of calm and understanding in his life, but I will have to see if he is able to realize that his actions are hurting himself. I still pray for him and his family.
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This past year, we offered in-person learning. Students could select to be remote if they had medical conditions or family situations which required reduced risk. One of my students was in person at the beginning of the year but then chose remote learning. They struggled as a remote learner in many ways. I worked with the parents to try to improve communication but little progress was made. It was a challenging time and I prayed many times that God would use me to help the student through this time even though my initial reaction was to get frustrated and start passing around blame.
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During this school year, I had one student in particular who I began to be concerned about. She is a rather quiet student to begin with, but I noticed her grades were slipping, she seemed more distant, and needed lots of redirection to focus. There were math concepts that I had gone over with her in private sessions, group lessons, and as I walked the room helping students during our math hour that she just could not grasp. I felt there had to be something more going on and the time had come to reach out to her mom. Her mother was appreciative and after talking with her daughter we both came to the realization there had been something quite significant in her life going on. Without divulging too much, this began a court proceeding to restrict interaction with the girl’s father. When we helped relieve this child of her burden and walk alongside of her I began to see a dramatic turn around in her demeanor and her grades. It was an opportunity to show the child how much I loved her, to pray for her, and to speak truth about how much Christ cares for her as well. Her mother and I were able to point her back to Jesus at so many moments and show her the evidence of him working in her life.
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It was a couple of years ago when I was student-teaching. The student was probably too young for that group, but barely made it in for his age. His abilities were lacking because the focus wasn’t there. He also had a history of being a bit of “trouble” and may have come from a troubled home. Nevertheless, it was worth investing in him. Encouraging him in his struggles and sharing in the little victories boosted his confidence. This was in public school, so I was limited from sharing Christ. I could only share Christ through my actions and behavior. I saw this young student begin to grow. I think he simply needed someone sincerely taking an interest in him and his progress. He needed to know that he was valuable and there were people on his side. I pray he will come to know Christ if he doesn’t already. As Christian educators, we care because Christ cared. We love because he loved. We live according to his will and way, because he came to show us that when he was here with us on Earth.
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One of my students was not progressing well in her English. She had been my ESL student for 2 years and still made many of the same mistakes because she would never acknowledge that she made errors or needed correcting. She would say things like, “It doesn’t matter if I …” She also spoke in ways that sounded disrespectful to me. We floundered together for a while. Eventually I talked with her, with her mother and asked the school counselor to speak to her too. The girl slowly began to see her need to learn and to listen. The mother was not fully supportive but did know the daughter’s tendency to speak rudely and worked on that with her at home. The counselor worked with her on Growth Mindset. Throughout the whole thing, she had faith and a relationship with the Lord. She even told me once, “My brother is so stupid he doesn’t even believe there is a god.” Her faith was an encouragement to me even when her English was not. She did however begin to make the progress that she needed and improve in her writing. These challenging students are the ones that I remember for years to come. I work so hard to see them grow. I still remember my first student in 2000. She was a Thai girl in a boarding school in India. She hated learning English, being in boarding, and just about everything else. Now she is an adult and still keeps in touch. She often thanks me for pushing her and loving her. She is not a believer, but her brother is, and I pray that she will come to faith in Christ too.
