Confession...

I think I've probably already confessed this here before, but it never hurts to say things more than once, right TPRSers?? 

Okay, here it is....I want my students to like me...what's that?  You can't read that because your eyes hurt from too much reading?  I'll say it again...I want my students to like me! Ahem.  I not only want my students to like me, but I want them to remember me.  Isn't that why we all became teachers?  To make a difference in kids' lives?  Sigh.  As a junior high teacher, I have found that I am quite often forgotten in the excitement of high school.  My students meet their new French teacher and forget all about the cool, beautiful, amazing French teacher they had last year.

So imagine my surprise when I got back from an absence today and saw on my board love notes from some of my students from last year!  They came back to this stinky old school to see me!!  They wrote (in French) that they love me.  I have made jokes about it here, but that really meant a lot to me.  Not just because the tiny adolescent me is still in here, hoping that the popular girl will notice my new haircut, but because it means that I did my job last year.  Not just my job of teaching French, but my biggest job, which is reaching my students.  I reached those students and they knew (I hope) that I would be excited to see them because they were IMPORTANT to me. 

This year, I have 148 new or returning students and I hope that I can show them every day how important they are.  I might not be the best about remembering to ask them about their soccer game this weekend (I'm not very good at that), but I hope I have my own way of showing them they're awesome.  I think I do have a way, but I'm not sure that I could really pinpoint it...is it teaching to the eyes? complimenting them on a cute shirt? trying to connect through music or films?  There have to be multiple ways to reach students, right?  How do you do it?