Yes there are the downsides of teaching...

but the upsides of teaching totally make up for it. For example, yesterday going into a test for my Math Modeling class I had a student tell me that he was ready for the test and that he was going to pass. Now keep in mind that in the Math Modeling classes the students' math skills are below par and the highest grade that I saw at the end of the fall semester were C's. So with this student telling me that he was prepared for the test kinda made me puff my chest out with pride to hear this from the student. Now, right now I'm not sure as to how the student did on the test, but I'm hoping the best for him.

Another occasion where I'm proud to be someone's teacher happened today. This happened with another Math Models student, and she has been one where she gives up working a problem before even looking at it. However, once I start nudging here on starting the problem, she then knows how to work the problem. So this week, she was absent from class on Tuesday (thus missing the review day for the test), today I had her work on the review that everyone did on Tuesday, and she is going to come in tomorrow to make up the test. So while everyone was working on their test, the student was working on the review. Now what amazed me was that the student was able to complete the assignment before class was over, and didn't complain or asked for questions on how to solve the problems. With the student presenting me the work before class was over, to be perfectly honest I was surprised by this. So I'm hoping that this student has completed the work correctly as well.

Like ya'll saw earlier this week, teaching has its down moments (and they can be pretty bad) which then makes the good moments of teaching great.