Care & The Birthday Pass
October 9, 2008 by mr. g
One trait good teachers share is they all really care about their students. They really care about their success, and they really care about them as people – as more than just students.
You can toil over lesson plans til your brain explodes, you can grade until your body drops, but care is almost innate. I do acknowledge that EVERY teacher must care about their students to some extent. The problem is, some teachers just don’t know how to express it. It’s almost impossible to work on improving your care – either it’s there or it isn’t, but you can work on improving HOW you express it.
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I’m taking a quick break home this next weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I’m no good at giving gifts; I’ve never been. However, this year I’m trying to change that. And it all starts in the classroom.
At the beginning of the year I created a spreadsheet with all my student’s birthdays. When their birthday hits, I greet the “happy birthday!” as they walk into class and give them this:
Just a small token to acknowledge: “Hey, it’s your day! You know it. I know it. I hope you enjoy it.” Something really small, but students love it. Makes them feel at least a little special as they spend a portion of their birthday in my classroom.
With 130+ students and 365 days in the year, you can imagine that I’m handing out a few of these every week. It is overwhelming to play caregiver to so many, but it’s the little things that make it happen.
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wait a minute, i was one of the kids whose birthdays was during summer vacation.
…do we ever get a homework pass?
[...] mr. g wrote an interesting post today onCare amp; The bBirthday/b PassHere’s a quick excerptI’m taking a quick break home this next weekend to celebrate a friend’s bbirthday/b. I’m no good at giving gifts; I’ve never been. However, this year I’m trying to change that. And it all starts in the classroom. b…/b [...]
i can give you a homework pass now if you’d like, owen. 2 even.
i was going to say the SAME thing as owen! i was always one of those kids who received absolutely no birthday benefits during the school year.
no cupcakes for everyone from my mom. no sitting at the teacher’s desk for a day. no special treatment.
if you can somehow find a way to show some love to your summer babies, my 7-year old self will rejoice. and none of that all-at-once everybody with a summer birthday gets it at the same time crap either. hah
haha I ACCEPT.
the summer kids will see this inequity soon enough, mr. g.
and there WILL be unrest.
be prepared.