Sapna P.

I've been teaching high school math for 5 years now and really enjoy it. Helping kids understand difficult concepts and watching them grow as individuals is an awesome experience. I had many jobs before teaching and couldn't help but feel the dread of going to work each day. I don't feel that as a teacher. I get up and am excited to go in and help my students learn and we have a great time together.

There's been those occasional students that are very difficult but the easiest way to approach it is to simply understand that they aren't mad at you. They are mad about other things going on in their life and the only way they know how to deal with that is to vent at the closest and most accessible target and that just happens to be their teachers.

I've had so many awesome experiences as a teacher but one of the best was a student I was having a tough time with last year. I had begun to dread having to deal with him on a day to day basis and one day I had to send him to the assistant principal to talk to him about his behavior. I talked to the assistant principal later and she had had a real heart to heart with him and had asked him why he was getting sent out of my class and that he knows that if he's getting sent by me then something is really going on because I never send kids out. He broke down and told her his entire story and why he was feeling the need to challenge male authority at school.

I resolved to forgive that student when I heard that story and to not let our conflict that day color our relationship going forward. I really dwelled on it that afternoon and then the next morning I was walking around the corner at 7:30 in the morning and who do I run into? That student. I gave him a big hello and asked him how he was doing and our eyes met and I don't know how to explain it but our eyes met and we both knew. He knew that I had forgiven him and that I wasn't going to hold the day before against him and I wanted the best for him. And in that moment I saw him take a deep breath and then I saw forgiveness for me sort of pass over his face.

I don't know how to express that moment but it was powerful because I learned how important forgiveness is and how big a role a teacher has in a student's life when they look up to you as I know that student does to me.