This title describes exactly who I am. And it is also the main reason it makes teaching a hard job for me.

My heart is meant to form relationships and love others. As a Young Life Leader, my main role was to hang out with kids and help them in whatever way they needed.

As a teacher, you can’t really form these “personal, outside of school relationships” teacher-student relationships. It breaks my heart that my kids can tell me so much about their lives, but I only get to do so much about it. I don’t get to just  go hang out with my kids on the weekend, buy them a meal, take them to Power Play, or whatever.

I’m not sure what continued relationships look like after kids graduate and leave your class/school. I hope that I get a little more freedom in being able to be somewhat of a “mentor” to them at the end of this school year.

I really hope so.

MAP testing starts on April 16. I’m sad because my kids aren’t ready. But I pray for some type of progress.

This post may sound a little negative, but I hope if you get anything from it, it’s that the main thing I have learned this year has nothing to do with test scores, grades, or data. But relationships, helping them better their character, and unconditionally loving my students.