What I’ve Learned From My Students
What I’ve Learned From My Students
By Jennifer LaForge
Embedded Files
Edition 14 is the last edition of the 2025-26 academic year. See you next year!
Each time I enter a classroom I feel confident that I have something valuable to teach my students. After years of teaching, I also now understand that I will most likely leave the lesson having learnt something from them as well. The students sitting at the desks before me have lived in countries I have never visited and have experienced things that I may never encounter.
When I first received my teaching degree I moved to Nagoya, Japan and taught English at a language school. I was immediately impressed by the sheer determination my students had. Long school days and high expectations, placed on them by themselves, their parents, and their teachers, did not diminish their desire to succeed in their English language lessons. Since then, I have taught in two international schools and over the past many years, my students have taught me life lessons on perseverance, resilience, and empathy, to name a few.
When faced with a move to a new country and lessons taught in a language other than their mother tongue, my students persevere and strive to improve their English language skills. Imagine having to stand in front of peers and present when you are afraid of public speaking. Add to that situation the fact that you can not communicate as fluently as you are able in a different language. Through all this, my students have shown incredible resilience. This resilience teaches me that I can overcome difficult situations as bravely as they do.
I love the idea that teachers each have a toolbox that they bring to the classroom. In my opinion, empathy is one of the most important of these tools. How can we expect our students to become kind and caring world citizens if we do not model that behaviour at ISD? It brings me great joy to see small acts of kindness from both our staff and students on a daily basis. It might be supporting a student with their homework, offering words of encouragement on a rough day, or simply welcoming the new kid. A person who learns empathy in school has discovered something more important than grammar or Pythagoras. I am grateful to my students for showing these qualities.
To my students, thank you for helping me become a better person, as a teacher, a mom, and a friend.
Mr. Dessens: “What I’ve learned from my students is when you are more open-minded you learn more about others and yourself.”
Mrs. Gerritzen: “That they have great ideas to make your lesson plans more student driven.”
Ms. Olalde Vegas: “To always show kindness and patience with newcomers.”
Ms. Spaans: “Diversity is cool.”
Ms. Grassullo: “Creativity never ends!”
Mr. van den Boom: “...is that descent doesn’t really matter and humans are very similar.”
Ms. Bennett: “From trips with students, to log in issues and general questions…’that a little patience and a warm smile makes everything possible’.”
Ms. Okhrimenko: “À ne pas toujours suivre le chemin prévu.”
Mr. Varga: “Importance of adapting my teaching in accordance with the needs of my students.”
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