Article & Photography by Emily Riser | Owl Staff
HCC education major, Emily Riser, enjoys working with her students.
How much can a twenty-year-old sophomore in college learn from 50 nine-year-old fourth graders?
As I sat in my bedroom in early November, waiting to choose my classes for the upcoming Spring semester at HCC, I received a call from my mother, a principal at Leeds Elementary School in Cecil County.
“I have a teacher going out on maternity leave at the end of January,” she told me. “It will only be a seven-week long position. Do you want to take it?”
I had been working as a substitute since June of 2021, after graduating from high school, but had never taken on a long-term position. Mainly substituting to help my mother in last-minute teacher absences, I had never considered myself much of an educator. I nervously took the position and compiled my Spring schedule of online classes.
Growing up in a family consisting of educators, I had always wanted to pursue a different career, automatically rejecting the path of education to be something else.
Toward the end of my tenure, however, I found myself tearing up alongside my students. Perhaps being an educator was simply in my blood.
“I feel more focused when I’m learning from a teacher who seems to really care about my grades and wants to see me succeed.”
Once an English major, now an education major, I was astounded at the many lessons these students taught me: virtues of patience, understanding, and kindness.
“If you don’t have a good relationship with your teacher, you won’t enjoy school as much, which makes you not want to pay attention,” Karleigh, a student in my homeroom, states. “I feel more focused when I’m learning from a teacher who seems to really care about my grades and wants to see me succeed.”
Positive relationships between teachers and students are necessary for the growth of a child’s education. Especially within the past three years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many young students have struggled and found themselves behind their peers due to their absence from the classroom. With reassurance and kindness exuberated from teachers, students are able to reach and exceed their goals at better rates.
“I don’t feel as comfortable talking to a teacher about making up a test if I don’t know my teacher that well,” stated Grayson, another student in my homeroom, “where when I talk to teachers I like a lot, I know I can ask for help any time.”
Not only do positive relationships build a student’s academic skills, but social skills as well.
“I don’t feel as nervous in a classroom where the teacher is very nice,” Ezra, a student I connected with over our shared experiences with anxiety, states. “I don’t shut down and stop talking where I might when I feel overwhelmed.”
Being able to help a student navigate something as serious as anxiety at such a young age made me understand education is the right path for me. I saw in Ezra what I recall in my younger self, and I was so happy to be able to provide a safe environment for him to express his emotions.
On my worst days, when I felt stressed, under the weather, or just not my best, these students brightened my day. They constantly kept me on my toes, made me laugh the hardest, and brought me a sense of community I had not experienced before.
Their stories continue to amaze me, as a lot of them face incredulous challenges for children at such a young age, many taking on responsibilities foreign to my own when I was a student in elementary school. Each student’s grit and determination keep me coming back to encourage them and to help them pursue all of their dreams.
In such a short time frame, these students have given me memories that will last for the rest of my life.