The Biggest Reward

Debbie Buschjost - 3rd grade teacher:

The biggest reward I have with being a teacher has always been the excitement in my students. There are endless ways that students show excitement almost everyday; however, there are two specific areas that are most rewarding for me.

The first one would be the excitement my students show in the "at home" projects we do. With these projects, students are given an assignment usually to create a model, poster, or 3-D image of something to do with the topic we are learning. Every time I assign these projects I really stress to the students to keep their ideas to themselves and have the project be a total surprise to the other students and myself. I love when students bring these to school on presentation day. They are so excited to present their own actual work of art and it is at those times that their creativity really shines. It is then that I feel rewarded in being a teacher. To have my students so excited about what they have learned and so eager to share it with everyone else.

The second area that is rewarding to me is the excitement my students have when I, their teacher, show interest in their lives outside of the classroom. Something as small as attending their basketball games or sitting by them during the weekend Mass makes them feel so important. It has always been very rewarding to me when my students have asked me to attend an extracurricular activity. For them to want you to be a part of that has always shown that they respect you more than just the teacher they are "stuck" with during the day - five days a week. In closing, then I would say that my biggest reward of being a teacher - is not only the times when my students really shine and show off their creativity, excitement, and ability, but when they ask me to be there to witness them achieve their goals.