Day 1067 -- Teaching Buddy

I teach with an amazing guy.  His name is Jeff, and this is the 5th year we've taught chemistry together at Western.  He is an incredible person, but today I am thankful for the fantastic colleague that he is as well.

Yesterday, we had to attend a session after school on how to best help our students who are struggling in a specific subject area.  Every week, students who are failing a core subject area are required to attend a "boost" with a teacher from that subject area.  The idea is that the teacher will be able to re-teach specific concepts or skills that students has not yet mastered or help with missing/incomplete assignments in that subject.

It dawned on me that Jeff and I have a much easier time of this because we work so well together.  We agree on all of our objectives that we will teach before hand, all of our assessments are the same so that we can compare data, and we meet daily to discuss lesson plans so that we can assure our students are all getting the same experience -- hopefully the best one we can offer.

Therefore, when students come to me for their "boost", even if I don't know who they are, I will know exactly what they are working on and how I can best help them.  This makes life so much easier for both of us.

I am so grateful for a colleague that is fun, easy-going, and who is willing to work with me so that we can both effectively reach students (and not pull our hair out in the process!).  Not only is he a phenomenal teacher, I consider him one of my best friends and one of my favorite parts about teaching at Western.

Thank God for my teaching buddy!

Lord, thank you for Jeff and for all of the blessings he brings in to my life.  In your name I pray, Amen.

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