Educational WOO

Another area I use my woo in is with teaching.  This was especially true at the kindergarten level.  They are hugely shapeable at that age and I count it as no small thing to play a little part in their development.  You have such an opportunity as a teacher of any subject to impact students’ lives.  Lately, I’ve decided I’m more interested in teaching adults about business, but the premise is the same and perhaps even more exaggerated the younger you go in regards to the age of the students.

I can teach my students a better way than what they’re learning at home.  This is often goes in partnership with other teachers and school support personnel.  We work incredibly hard to influence our students for the betterment of themselves and our community.  When a student is only 5 years old, you can pretty well attribute their behavior to their home environment by and large.  Yes; sometimes students genuinely need medication; but often times it has more to do with a lack of structure in their home as to the reason they act the way they’re accustomed to.

I had a student this past year who really threw me for a loop.  She acted out like no other student I had ever had.  Eventually, as I said with the help of several staff members, she turned an incredible corner and became one of my best behaved students.  I would call her mom on occasion just to report how awesome this student was doing and to celebrate with her mom at how far she had come that year.  The behavior teacher told me that one day this student came up to see her as was customary and reported that she knew, “Mr. Hemming loves me.”  My coworker was taken aback a little naturally so she probed and when asked what she meant the student reported how I had told her I was sooooo proud of her that day and the difference she had made in her behavior.  Now that’s a good feeling, to know you made that kind of impact on a student.  It’s very easy to forget in the daily grind that we make much of a difference at all.  Every once in a while those moments happen though and it gives you strength to keep going for another day.

Even with coworkers who I have a difficult time dealing with, I can usually win them over with my woo.  There have been times when another teacher who couldn’t stand anyone else on our team has actually given me a Christmas present.  That doesn’t sound like a very big deal, but she is Jewish!  It doesn’t happen every time of course, no one is perfect and sometimes you’re just going to have those people that can’t stand you for whatever reason.