Thanatos...the high school teacher?
Man, I'm having trouble wrapping my head round that image, lol
Bizarrely though, I suspect that behind the self-deprecation, there lurks an extremely competent teaching fellow. Radical perhaps, unconventional certainly, but most worthy I'd say. Well done indeed!
I mean, that was my first year. In American public high schools right now, the most important thing is to pass the SOL, which is a standardized test that stems from the "No Child Left Behind" act. I have a whole speech about that that I will bring up later if anyone asks, but the point is, in American education right now, there are three standards of self-judgement:
Feedback from your students
Feedback from yourself
Feedback from your school (aka how many kids passed the SOL).
My SOLS went fine, I was a first year teacher so I was mainly teaching geometry. Obviously, because I'm me, I had the best pass rates for geometry. Next year I'm doing mainly algebra 2. Hooray, promotion!
I got emails from several students about math and how they were more interested in it now and how I helped them and some bullshit. I'm not gonna go into the specifics, but I had a girl who failed math for the last two years, and this year she got a Pass (Advanced) on the federal standardized test, and I think her mom may have orgasmed.
The mom sent me a really nice email about how the daughter was enthusiastic about her goal to become a scientist again after several years of being depressed. I mean, that girl didn't need me, she had talent, I don't understand why her previous teachers were such douchebags. Her 7th and 8th grade teachers claimed she wasn't good at math? I talked to her for six seconds and it was clear that she was just nervous so I left her alone except when I ASSAULTED HER IN FRONY OF THE CLASS WITH A DEMAND TO ANSWER A MATH PROBLEM.
Seriously, being a teacher is fun. Best part is that at the very beginning of the year the girl's mom emailed me to make sure I was professional and I was looking out for the girl's best interests. Just get out of my way, lady.
I sent the "My daughter loves math again!" email to my mom and my sisters. I'm not gonna lie, I was really happy about it. I mean, I'm talking about it now. Obviously I'm a little proud.
But finally,