I am crying as I type this

As a very new middle school teacher this year, I have been really trying to build relationships with my students, since I feel that is so important, especially in middle school. I have one student, let’s call him “Tommy,” who is in 2 classes of mine. Tommy is very shy and quiet. He is a good student, and his parents seem to be supportive. He doesn’t really talk or interact with other students. I have made an effort to chat with him- not just about school- and he has begun to open up a little, and smiles a bit more now. <br>Today, I had to substitute in a class that was not mine. It was a 7th grade math class, made up of all boys, and all of them have ADHD. It was an absolute shit show. They were running around, yelling and shouting, throwing pens and pencils. I was begging them to just sit down and be quiet. They didn’t do a single thing for the teacher, and spent most of the time making it difficult for me to do my job, and just being overall assholes. <br>I got back to my classroom and it was a complete mess. The class before had spent the last 15 minutes of my class destroying the room. I am not sure how the other sub didn’t notice it. Chairs were upside down, books were all over the floor, and papers were shredded and thrown about. I spent a lot of time before my next class picking up the mess. <br>For my last class of the day, I have a class of all girls, and about 75% have IEP’s, so they get easily overwhelmed. When they came in and saw the room, a couple of them made a comment about how sad the classroom was, and how they wanted to help clean it up. I said, “It would be great if you guys could help me!” Even Tommy started to help. He picked up a bunch of books off the floor and put them away. It was such a small act, but made me feel so good. <br>I am crying as I type this because he is not the type of student that would normally do that, but it was so kind, and I am just so grateful to be in this job. I don’t care about the bad days or difficult behaviors now, because 1 student showed me the impact that I am having.