The “A-Ha” Moments in School

I recently saw a Facebook post that said “Celebrate the “Ah-ha” moments.” Of course this post was talking about life’s “ah-ha” moments. But it hit me that this would be something interesting to discuss here on “Teacher Buddy Helps.” But instead I would discuss the “A-Ha” Moments in school.

The “A-Ha” moments in school

I deduced that there are actually two categories for “a-ha” moments; those experienced by your students, and those that teachers have as they grow in their teaching career.

“A-Ha” moments for students

Students have a-ha moments throughout the years. Unfortunately, some of them are not positive. I remember my five year old daughter got her first experience with racism at school. She was playing with a student of a different ethnicity when an adult (not an employee, thankfully) told her she shouldn’t be. She asked me why so-and-so told her she shouldn’t be friends with Kimmie. The only answer I could tell her was that the person who said that was stupid. And that of course she can be friends with Kimmie and to ignore that grown-up’s opinion.

But many moments for them are so so so positive. Teachers live for the “light bulb” moments (as we like to call them) where students realize they can now do something that they couldn’t do before.

You might be interested in reading this other article I wrote for inspiration:

Why did you become a Teacher? What’s Your WHY?

I taught first grade for most of my teaching career. One of the best things about first grade is watching all (almost all) of the students transition from non-readers to beginning readers. Seeing a child read the “whole page” by herself is thrilling. They are so proud of themselves and they realize that they can do this difficult task.

In upper grades, I experienced a student have an “a-ha” moment in math when I was teaching them fractions. He just wasn’t getting the concept we were working on. Then on the second day of trying to get all the students to understand he blurted out in class “OH, NOW I GET IT.” It was such a spontaneous response of excitement that I still remember it to this day.

The “A-Ha” Moments for Teachers

Teachers also have “a-ha” moments. The first time you have a great lesson and see what’s working is awesome. And, on the flip side, the first time a student does something that’s not addressed in your “rules” and you realize you need to connect that action to a rule and make sure the class understands — is also an “a-ha” moment for the opposite reason.

An “a-ha” moment I had while teaching was when I realized it was ok to have a “teachable” moment. This happens when an incident occurs during school that causes you to take a moment to teach your students right from wrong, or how to be compassionate, to have morals, etc.

Another “a-ha” moment for me as a teacher was when I realized I don’t have to grade and return every item the student works on. I discuss this in detail in another rarticle I wrote that you can read here.

First Year Teacher Preparation – How Can I Ever Grade All These Papers?

An “A-ha” moment as an administrator

When I was an assistant principal a big “a-ha” moment I had was in regards too calling parents when students got in trouble. This was a task I loathed. So, in the beginning I would push this off to the end of the day; dreading the conversation and how the parent would react.

But what I soon realized was that when I waited, I just spent those hours between the incident and the phone call worrying. And after a few months, I realized that 8 out of 10 times the call wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought would be. Then I also realized that I often spent half a day or more worrying. And that if I made the phone call right away it would be done and off my mind…. an “a-ha” moment.

I hope that you experience many “a-ha’ moments during your teaching career. AND that you take the time to celebrate the good ones and learn from the others.

Until Next Time,