The Notes Still Matter - Handwritten or Via Email, It's Always Good To Hear from Students of Yesteryear

I got an email late last night. A math teacher in her first year on Long Island, successfully landing 4 college Stats class and an advanced Calculus one. I had this student as a sophomore in an introductory class, then in a content literacy class, followed by a research class and then her capstone. When I have the math brainiacs, I simply hold my breath and I hope I make sense to them (I mean, I used to love math, but I didn't pursue it after high school, so I'm lost at the complexities of what they know how to do). In my head, I imagine it is the math faculty they're drawn to and that a mind like mine is outrageous and annoying. 

Not for this student. I received an email that basically wanted to thank me for filling her head in all my classes and how so much of what I had to say was at the basis of what she hopes to accomplish as a classroom teacher. She's confident she'll succeed, although she's scared, but already in the first two weeks, "I've been channeling you, Crandall."

Then, later in the day I found a note in my office from two years ago (one left under my door)...another student going into her senior year, simply wanting me to know that she wishes she took more of my classes, as she keeps thinking about what she learned from me in her sophomore year. "Yes, I'm writing by hand and I know that it is weird, but you're on my mind and I wanted to say thank you. My other classes are very much unlike yours, and that is why I'm thinking about how much I learned from you. I hope I can take you again."

I'm long past the days of (dare I say it) caring of what students think of my teaching because, as we used to say at the Brown School, "We're after something larger and we hope what we invest in you will stay with you for life." Ah, but who doesn't appreciate the notes and reflections when they come, especially in a profession that gets more challenging each and every year (with more hostility and frustrations)?

I'll take the notes. I wish I knew what it is that was so different from the others, but when they take a second to appreciate it, I am fueled. 

As I was leaving last night, another student heading into student teaching ran up to me and said, "I went home last night and cried, trying to find other careers with my undergraduate degree. This teaching one is going to be way too hard." 

I agreed, and assured her it's a career for the tough-minded, the flexible, and the one who commits to lifelong learning. It is true, 29 years in the profession that I look around and think, "What are these people doing? Thinking." I'm amazed by the choices of K-12 educators as well as those in colleges/universities.

It is the students, though, that fuel me. And I'm simply amazed at how many of them are willing to turn the other way and avoid them. Yet, they are the first to preach to others how it is done. 

I guess this is simply the nature of the field.