Has this experience change your life?

You can never really appreciate something until you actually experience. I have found that there are two main camps among educational professionals. There are the ones who come into work excited, or excited most of the time, love the kids, and want to see them exceed, even the ones who are, well lets just say energetic. Then there is the camp that believes the parents are to blame for everything and that the kids want to be ignorant. This past year depending on the circumstances, I fell into both camps. Next year I plan to restrict myself to the camp of excitement. I love my job, at times it is difficult due to misunderstandings with the students and other adults at school, but you have those kinds of misunderstandings at all jobs. I love to see the excitement in a student when they finally get it, the look of satisfaction a child has on there face because they know my room is a safe, routine environment. I love the fact that my students respect me because they know I am fair and honest not because I yell, threaten or degrade them. This experience has changed me because I can now appreciate kids who are referred to as a statistic on paper as what they really are, children, no different than anyone else America.