Sylvia Bradshaw- Week 5- The Hard Parts of Teaching

I was really excited to see the kids this week and they seemed just as excited to see me.  At the beginning of the day the students all wait outside of the classroom before the teacher greets each of them to enter the classroom. Because I get to the school before the scholars are allowed in the building, I have time to greet them while they are lined up waiting to go into class.  I use this as my time to catch up with them about their week and to find out all the going ons in the classroom :). This week there was a new girl in the classroom, I introduced myself to her, she didn't have much to say, she is very shy.  I'm looking forward to she how she blossoms over the next week.  I made it a point of asking the scholar from last week that was having a hard time adjusting how his week was and I was happy to hear from not only him, but from a couple of his classmates that he was doing so much better.  I love having this time to talk to the scholars, the schedule does not allow for. much free talk time, as you can tell from the photo below, so stealing some time to have that one on one is something that I'm happy to do.

The day was really a typical day, but I did have a very interesting conversation with my MT about family dynamics in the classroom and how it is very easy to spot when things are not quite right at home from the behavior and the performance of the students in class.  I could tell that my MT really cares a lot for her students and that she has their best interest at heart.  As I was listening to her voice some of her concerns, all I could think was, how is it possible, as a teacher, not to get emotionally attached to your students.  I know that there has to be a level of emotional attachment, but how are teachers able to make sure that they don't take home the personal baggage of their students' home everyday.  Some children have very serious problems at home and with me being a very empathetic person, I feel that I will need to find a way to make sure that I am able to separate my school life from my home life so that I am not emotionally drained by the personal difficulties that some of my student may face.  I wonder if most schools offer services to their teachers for their emotional well being.