Saturday, November 12, 2011

Shut up and listen


I love being “teacher.”  As I complete my student teaching and look forward to someday having my very own class, I can’t help but grin.  I love how they make me laugh, I love how each student is unique, I love how no two days are the same, I love remembering back to my favorite year of 3rd grade and now doing my best to make this their favorite year, too.  I love teaching.

But to those of you who say teaching really isn’t a profession, is “easy,” or just a form of glorified babysitting, I beg to differ.  Trying to get that many kids to actually listen to you for 8 hours is hard!  After teaching a 30-minute lesson to a more than normally chatty class of 30, I used a last ditch effort to get my students to listen.  “Does anyone know what a pet peeve is?”  I asked.  There was no response from a befuddled group of 8-going-on-9-year-olds.  “A pet peeve is something that really bothers someone.  Do you know what my pet peeve is?” 

Still no response.

“My pet peeve is when students talk, sing, hum, or do other distracting things while I am trying to teach.  It makes it very hard for me to teach when I don’t think my students are paying attention.” 

The shocked looks on their faces kept them quiet.  At least for the next 90 seconds. 

As I drove home feeling defeated that my students had not paid attention to my mapping lesson (which I had spent time planning and thought would be an engaging lesson), I tried to get my mind off the matter by thinking about other things: “I wonder if I’ll ever get a teaching job with the economy the way it is… Where am I going to live after graduation in May… Why doesn’t God help me figure out my future… Does He just want me to be lonely, homeless, and unemployed for the rest of my life?”

This is how I spend a lot of my time- talking/singing/humming my own sad little story while I ignore what God has to say to me.  But God doesn’t smack my hand and inform me of his “pet peeve” of my own ignorance.  Rather, he waits.  He waits for me to be ready to listen.  He is patient and allows me to come to him.  He loves me despite the chatty, oblivious 3rd grader I still am. 

In my education classes, they always tell us to wait.  If students are not paying attention, wait.  It will be uncomfortable, it will seem like eternity, but it is worth the wait.  I do my best to wait for my students, but I am impatient. 

What if God was impatient?  What if he only waited for the 30 seconds I can barely wait for my students?  What if he just threw in the towel every time I ignored his call?  But he never tires of waiting for me to listen. 

I often think how much smoother my lessons would go if my students would just listen.  If they only knew how much time it would save if we could just get through one lesson uninterrupted!  I wonder if God ever thinks, “If only she knew how much smoother and easier things would be if she would listen instead of talking over me.”  Even if he does think these things, he remains patient and continues to wait. 

Maybe I should take my own advice I give to my students.  Maybe I just need to shut up and listen.  

No comments:

Post a Comment