Sometimes IT IS a Great Job

Sometimes IT IS a Great Job

As the 2015-16 school year has come to a close, I had two fantastic experiences reminding me of why I decided to make education my life’s work, and of the impact we, as educators, have upon the children, and young adults we are charged with teaching.  What an amazing job I have!

The last week of this school year brought on some tough and unpleasant issues.  At one point or another, all administrators are put in situations when we have to enforce rules, and when we have to inform parents of the poor choices their children make as they navigate through the arduous task of growing through adolescents. Without getting into the gory details, I will just simply say I suspended one student for possessing materials not belonging to him, and two others for deciding to send inappropriate texts to other middle school students.  This was an unfortunate but necessary action facilitated by poor choices.  I do have to thank the wonderful parents for their support and help with administering consequences to these actions, and for allowing their children the opportunity to grow via these circumstances.

I am sure you can all relate to and imagine the bummer type stupor this put me in.  Then, as if by divine intervention, I was reminded how great the job of education and working with youth can, and always will be.  The first opportunity I experienced was a wonderful celebration honoring the reading achievements of the North Rich Elementary Kindergarten students.  Their reward….pieing the Principal (me, in yellow) and the Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Conk.  Instead of telling, just view the video.

How cool is it to be able to allow these young, wonderful children to have such a fun and exciting time?  I really do love these kids!

The second experience I was honored to encounter happened the very night I had to suspend the two texting middle school students.  I was attending the joint middle school and high school choir performance.  In the combined choir, the students from both schools performed very well, but it was the special highlight performance of the high school seniors which had the most impact upon me.  I literally had not seen these students since they had left the 8^th grade and moved to the high school.  One student, who could hardly find his locker and struggled socially and academically during his adolescent time with middle school, just absolutely blew me away with his guitar and singing performance.  It was amazing to see how much growth, talent, and confidence he demonstrated while performing on center stage.

But the icing on the cake was the singing performance of a high school young woman.  When she took the stage and started to sing she completely mesmerized me with the quality and strength of her voice.  I was so moved by her capacity to perform; I could do nothing but wipe the tears from my face.   

This was a middle school student who was sweat, academically proficient, and just a small cute young girl.  WOW!  What wonderful performance by a beautiful young woman!  When I was able to visit with her after the show and express my wonderment, joy, and genuine feeling of gratitude for being able to share in her talent, she unselfishly, and without prompting she said, “Mr. Motta, you always told us we could accomplish anything if we were willing to put ourselves out there and willing to grow by overcoming our fears and learning from our failures.  If it was not for the confidence I gained from you and the middle school teachers, I would have never been able to attempt to sing.”

YES….Sometimes IT IS a Great Job!!!