Don't under estimate the heart and the will of a teenager!!!

Just when you think students won't grasp a concept or a process that you have taught, they go above and beyond what you ask for. This week, I learned that you can't under estimate the heart of a teenager, because they will surprise you every time. This week my students are filming their first major film project. One thing that I was worried about was the fact that I gave my students a lot of information in terms of the planning process and the actual filming of the project. The planning process took about two weeks and as I observed one of my classes I said to myself, "This class probably won't do as well as my other classes." Much to my surprise they did better than any of my classes by far. One of the groups in my class asked if they could film in the class with a teacher that had a planning period. When the student first asked me that question, I wanted to say no but I said to myself, "Well if they want to try it fine, but this will be a learning experience for them." After about 20 minutes of walking around the school monitoring the other groups projects, I went to the classroom with the other group, much to my surprise the teacher in the classroom said to me, "Wow this is an amazing class, they came in here, they looked and acted so professional, they knew exactly what they wanted to do, and the director took charge of the group and everyone was cooperating with each other, they looked so professional." I wanted to say, "Is this the same group but is in my class?????" However as I observed them I couldn't believe how good they were in terms of putting together their project. One of the students from the group told me that this was one of the best classes she has been a part of because she was really shy and this class allowed her to come out of my her shell. Another student told me that he appreciated the long process because now he appreciate that it takes time to produce something good. That really made me feel good because that's one thing I'm passionate about, teaching my students that you have to be able to embrace the process of whatever you are working on. It definitely taught me that you can't under estimate the heart and the will of a teenager!