These last few days have been a little overwhelming. Teaching is going fine, I managed to make it through "A Global Historiography of the Modern World" and write a somewhat coherent paper about it, I'm doing OK with my historiography paper and have a plan for this weekend to work on it, plus see some friends and relax a bit, my students haven't been driving me too crazy. However, I've been dealing with some mega-issues with students. One student who hadn't shown up in three weeks now wants to start coming back to class since depression has been keeping him away. Another student started crying in the middle of class when I asked her to participate (I honestly wasn't mean or asking any hard questions) and then we had a twenty-five minute conversation afterwards where she told me about her lack of motivation and suicidal thoughts and how she wanted to drop out and go back home because she had no friends and has never been able to make friends. Oy. And then a signed a withdrawal form for another student who is dropping out because she realized that she's not ready for college yet and only came because she was given scholarship money.
I know how to teach. I know how to encourage and impart knowledge on students. I know how to grade and give feedback. I am not equipped to figuring out the intricacies of the human mind and know what my role is and sometimes even who to talk to about the problems these kids are having. I am so lucky that I didn't have those problems with I was in college but I hope I can be there for them when they're struggling not just academically, but emotionally and mentally as well.
It's just exhausting...
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