What will they remember?

I regularly read a blog written by a middle school "home ec" teacher. I don't think it is called "home economics" anymore, but that is how I recall the class. Now, instead of cooking and sewing there is an emphasis on things like money management and career choices. There are a few simple cooking and sewing lessons thrown in, but much of what I remember of the curriculum is gone.
In any event, this woman wrote about a fight that broke out in her classroom, the first in her 23 years of teaching. While she was troubled that she hadn't anticipated the conflict, what she pondered in her essay was "will this be what these boys remember about my class?" She points out that teachers make 1,500 instructional decisions in a day and that some of those will be indelibly written to memory for some students.

We can all probably point to some teacher or particular incident in school that we recall in vivid detail. It may be pleasant or, more likely, unpleasant. As we near the end of the semester I wonder what my students will remember from my class. Will it be content? A particular graph or table of data we discussed? A skill or technique? A time I answered a question for them?

I recall only bits of my college classes, so I have no illusion that I have made an indelible impression on many in my class. But, perhaps, for a few there will be at least a pleasant sense that our time together was useful.
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/place_at_the_table/2010/11/fight_fight_fight.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+place_table+%28Teacher+Magazine+Blog%3A+A+Place+at+the+Table%29