I love listening to classical music. My husband is a policeman. I am an art teacher. A student gave me a piece of art. I like seeing students be successful. I have a successful former student who is an artist. The artwork behind my desk shows fire and ice radiating from the mouth of a battle-scarred dire wolf. I like cheese. I am a patient teacher with difficult students.
My husband is a cop. I like to go to the beach. I teach music to children. I have been teaching for at least 8 years. My favorite student is a girl graduating from high school and is applying to the Royal Academy of Music. I tell my current students stories about former students. I have a student who made a statue out of cheese. I appreciate symbolism in art. I like cheese. I prefer to talk to parents and friends of difficult students to understand their issues.
I just finished talking with a difficult student who seems to not appreciate art very much. I'm worried the student is going to drop the class. Is there anything the student is into? A sport? A writer? Maybe you can find a way to incorporate that into their next assignment? I'm not sure, they are really closed off. I pride myself on being able to connect with my students so I feeling pretty down right now I think you might be the perfect person for them to talk to. Remember when you were feeling excluded from everything? Maybe the student is having similar pains. True, I could try that next time. Maybe I should talk to some other teachers and see what their approach is. I just think this child has so much untapped artistic talent that I want to bring out That is a great idea. I find that all of my teacher friends are vast sources of knowledge. When is the drop date? Or do you think they won't even regard the cutoff The drop date is actually coming up really soon, so I feel like I do not have a lot of time to get them to stay. Maybe I'm worrying to much. It is their choice right? I don't want to be too pushy about this. It is the student's life to live Have you tried talking to the student about your concerns. Sometimes they just need to see that someone cares. They may see you as the "difficult" teacher. We can seem foreign to them. That's what I thought I was doing, but they think that I am just telling them what to do, when what I am trying to say is that they have talent and should continue to hone it Sounds like maybe they need to let that sit for a while. I wouldn't be surprised if they do stick around. Sometimes it is good to hear those words even if we pretend we don't care. I am hoping that is what happens. I care about all my students, it just hurts me the most when someone has talent and they don't know it or acknowledge it And it may not be high on their priority list. I know I did not care about music classes in elementary school because of family issues at home. Who can focus on art when your parents aren't ok, ya know? 