Making a Difference

Every July I have a program called Summer Learning Place. The teachers are my students and they are being evaluated for a class that I teach. We only have the children for 15 days over 4 weeks and they are taught reading, math, and social skills.

When the teachers come in, I have them write a blog post about how they are feeling and what goals they want to set for the next four weeks. Many of them say they don’t see how they can make a difference in only four weeks. Their goals are not very challenging because their expectations are low for themselves and the children.

Sometimes the children quickly achieve the goals set by the teacher and new goals have to be set. I think the teachers also achieve the goals they set for themselves quicker than they expected.

At the end of the program, the teachers write about how they have changed over the past four weeks and many of them state they are amazed. They are amazed at how much they have grown professionally, and they are amazed at how much the children have grown in that short of time also.

I try to get them to understand that they made a huge impact on each child’s life and made a difference in their learning. I want them to see that if they can make such a big impact on a child they had never seen before in just 15 days,  imagine what impact they have on their students when they have them for 180 days!

When they are feeling discouraged, I want them to realize that sometimes we don’t see growth because we are too close to the situation. I know when I gain or lose weight, I don’t notice it as much as my parents who only see me a couple of times a year. Sometimes we may not know the impact we make until years later. Sadly, we may never know the impact we make.

But I can promise you, that we do make a difference.

This is life. By doing one thing, it is like a pebble hitting the surface of the water; it makes ripples whether we want to or not.

I know that teachers make a  difference in a student’s life. We help them work towards being successful in the future.  

Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash