How much longer will it be?

FINALLY started my Special Ed observations! I had the biggest smile on my face walking into the classroom to meet the teachers, one even said you sure look happy to be here, I told him I was so excited I barely slept last night! He laughed, and told me he was like that on his first day too, I was a little more at ease after that. As soon as the students walked in, I think my smile got even BIGGER! I work with students who are in kindergarten to third graders. Their disabilities all range from ADHD to a student missing a part of her brain, the corpus callosum...she almost made me cry that day. I get to help students improve on their reading and math. The students I am working with are absolutely hilarious, they made me laugh all morning. Their favorite thing to do is to make their teachers laugh. All the teacher's I am working with are super nice and they make the resource room an exciting place to go. The students all LOVE going there and they did not want to leave when the class was over. The one teacher I was mainly working with told me that I was meant to teach Special Education, this made me so happy I can't wait to go back! All I keep asking myself is how much longer till I can actually teach?! I can't wait to have my own class!

In the other classroom I am observing in, the teacher asked me to work with a student on math to see if I would be better than the aid he was given. She thinks I was so she wants me to work with him from now on. She said what makes you so great is that  you gained his trust, you cared about him getting the problems right. It kind of made me think about the survey we took for a grad student here, does caring really make you a more effective teacher? Well for those of you who are unsure of this the answer is YES. If you don't show that you CARE than neither will your students. Especially if it is challenging for that student, they need to be encouraged. Since all of us are going to be teachers: care for your students no matter if they are the cutest thing you have ever seen, super geniuses, not the brightest, or the most annoying child you have ever met, just care...it will make a difference.