A Teaching High

Yesterday I was blessed with a very rewarding and encouraging moment. Over the past month I have assigned a small research paper (of sorts) to my higher level students. I have been endlessly talking about not copying, outlines, NOT copying, essay structure, not COPYING, thesis statements and NOT COPYING. I did it all in small steps and I corrected a full draft a couple weeks ago. I then gave them a break of two weeks between that and their final draft, which is due next Monday. I told them that if they wanted me to read it again in the meantime for extra help I would be very willing to help them. Last night I read over the paper of the one girl who took me up on that.

And I was completely floored. I've been working with this girl throughout the process. She chose a topic that seemed straightforward, but starting running into some problems. "Teacher, I have learned that fertilizer use in Cambodia has declined in recent years, but rice production has increased, is this strange?" Yes, this is strange. I looked and found the same information. I tried to advise her as best I could and told her I was more concerned about the paper than the content...blah,blah,blah. When she turned in her rough draft I could see that she was putting in some good information, but it didn't have cohesion. The paper I read last night was an amazing piece of work that made complete sense to me and answered the confusion in a structured and logical way. I made some grammatical marks and will talk with her this morning about two small points that need clarification, but I am fully confident that when she turns it in to me again on Monday she will have a paper that could legitimately be turned in to any college in the U.S.

My joy in this situation is not that I taught her everything she knows, because she came in with a great deal of ability. Rather I am glad that she had a level of ability and motivation that allowed me to really help her in a meaningful way. She is at the level to understand what I am saying and I am at the level where I can understand exactly what she needs to fix. And now her paper is amazing. I am so proud of the work she has put into it, and glad that I was able to help her in a substantial way.