Epic teaching moment is epic
Man, I totally had a career-affirming moment today that was just awesome. More than a moment, really. Actually it was 35 minutes of career-affirming awesome. One of my students gave an intense 35 minute long presentation (it only had to be 5-10 minutes) on her research project on AAVE that was so thoroughly researched and well explained and interesting and just fucking awesome that I could cry. Like, everything I've wanted to achieve in my career? Just achieved it. I could quit my job today and be happy. No lie. (Not that I'm going to quit - I need moniez.)
It's not just that the presentation was excellent, it's the way she got it and like, went so much further than the criteria called for. It's seeing how you've helped someone learn something which made them want to learn even more, to explore, to think critically about it, engage in debates, and teach others. As a teacher you get to know pretty quickly what qualifies as "mediocre" or "excellent" or "utter bullshit". And it's also easy to spot "mediocre excellency" in kids who are gifted who've done the bare minimum to achieve excellent grades. This wasn't the latter. It was seeing someone who is capable of awesomeness actually push themselves to achieve awesomeness beyond mere excellency because they were interested.
It's also kind of amazing that the rest of the class listened to her speak for 35 minutes without any disruption. They were probably stunned into silence.
Srsly, best teaching moment evar.
It's not just that the presentation was excellent, it's the way she got it and like, went so much further than the criteria called for. It's seeing how you've helped someone learn something which made them want to learn even more, to explore, to think critically about it, engage in debates, and teach others. As a teacher you get to know pretty quickly what qualifies as "mediocre" or "excellent" or "utter bullshit". And it's also easy to spot "mediocre excellency" in kids who are gifted who've done the bare minimum to achieve excellent grades. This wasn't the latter. It was seeing someone who is capable of awesomeness actually push themselves to achieve awesomeness beyond mere excellency because they were interested.
It's also kind of amazing that the rest of the class listened to her speak for 35 minutes without any disruption. They were probably stunned into silence.
Srsly, best teaching moment evar.