My Biggest Reward

Shannon Cassmeyer - junior high teacher:

The biggest reward I have received as a teacher is the satisfaction of knowing I have reached a student and provided him with the helping hand or guidance he was in need of at a certain time.

As a teacher, every day I am here reaching out to the students in my various classes through the material, subject matter, and lessons of the day, but I also reach out to them on a personal level. I want to help and get to know these students on a personal basis, as we all are God’s children. As a Catholic school teacher, I want to be a Christian model for the students whether it is at school in the classroom or playing football at recess, but I also want them to see me as that model when out in the community, on a field trip, or at a sporting event.

Around four or five years ago, I had a few young ladies who were struggling with some of the abstract concepts in a literature set we were reading in literature class. I gave them the opportunity to spend some extra time with me to understand the concepts since they had a test approaching soon. A few of these girls were also on the soccer team I was coaching – which these girls asked me to do. I was able to give them help on the field and get to know them on a personal level as well as help them in the classroom. The week we had the test we also had a game on the following Saturday. The test went very well and the girls were very proud of themselves. The game also went well as we won by two goals.

I was very proud and happy knowing that these students “got it” in the classroom and that I was able to guide them on the field to use their skills to obtain a victory.

My biggest reward is the satisfaction of knowing I reached a student and he was successful and proud of it.