R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Throughout the summer I had people asking me, "Emily, do you love teaching?"
What a loaded question! After several rehearsals, I finally came up with a blanket answer - "Well, I can't say that I love it, BUT I know it's exactly where I'm supposed to be."
I just finished Day 2 of my second year teaching. I now have a new answer. So please, ask me again.
"Emily, do you love teaching?"
"Yes! I LOVE it!"
Maybe it's the euphoria of the first days of school. Maybe it's that I'm more rested now than I was last year. Maybe it's because I was dealt a great group of students. Maybe it's because my reputation is now more intact. Maybe it's because I've learned to ease up a lot and not sweat the details. I'm sure it's a combination of all these things.
Whatever the case, today leaves me with 2 great stories to share about why I love these kids so much.
In order to establish ground rules and expectations for my classroom, today was all about R-E-S-P-E-C-T. One of my activities was to have the students, in small groups, act out the opposite of respect, to show us what's NOT appropriate in my classroom. At their prodding, I agreed to let them swear a bit in their 'acting'. Most preciously, one of my seniors who knows me very well from last year's class, raised his hand and said, "Ms. Schroeder, I'm really not comfortable with this skit thing. I don't think I can do this until I hear you swear just ONE time." The whole class went silent grinned, waiting for a response from their innocent, goody-two-shoes Ms. Schroeder. (I'll let you guess my response).
The other story is one of true respect. This year I have two classes full of students I taught last year (they are taking the follow-on engineering class). In one of the classes I am blessed to have sweet "Paul". Last year Paul was my Cross to Bear. We had a love/hate relationship that just about anyone could attest to. The more I tried to push him and encourage him, the more he pushed me away. Though he treated me with complete disrespect in front of other students, I knew he wanted nothing more than my attention and acknowledgement. He was a constant disruption, using bad language (multi-lingual), and often bringing his peers into his realm of disruption. Yet, I loved Paul so much, no matter how hard he pushed back. I refused to have him transferred out of my class.
I had been curious to see what it was going to be like when Paul entered my class on the first day of school. Though I had a glimmer of hope that he would walk in the class happy to be there, happy to receive a hug, the sad reality is that he came in late; he came in smug; he came in disruptively; he came in disrespectfully, talking down to me.
Today was the same, but worse. Furthermore, the buddies that he sat with were so quiet and attentive until Paul came in. Once Paul sat with them, their attention was diverted.
But there was a different look in their eyes this year. This year the look in their eyes was, "Paul, what are you doing? How can you even think of being so disrespectful to Ms. Schroeder? Stop ruining her image of me."
Throughout the classroom, there was silence. The unspoken words in the room whispered, "Who is this guy that he could treat Ms. Schroeder so badly? We are here to learn. He better not get in our way."
At the end of class, as the students shuffled out the door, I subtly comment to Paul's friend, "It's not so cool, is it?", to which he looked down at his feet and shook his head.
I am so proud of all my students today (save one) for showing me the utmost respect. One of my philosophies about high schoolers has always been this - They just want to be loved, and they want someone to love in return. They just want to be respected, and they want someone to respect in return.
The students today in Paul's class will never realize how much respect they showed me today and how much that meant to me. My, they have grown! Perhaps I played a small role?
Yes, I love teaching.