Why Teach?

The last couple of days I have been giving a lot of thought about my students and my career in general. I guess you could call it self reflection.

One of my students actually asked me the other day why I became a teacher. I've explained it before, but never to a 10 year old. I've wanted to be a teacher since I was in Kindergarten. I loved school, and I loved learning. But at that very young age, school was one of few safe places I had in my life. My teachers were my role models and I wanted to be just like them. And it's probably that kind of thinking that got me through for years.

I also knew early on though that I loved kids, and I had a gift. I had a way with younger kids. Early on, I helped out wherever I could. In grade 6, I gave up lunches to act as a supervisor in the Kindergarten room.

By high school, my reasoning went a step further. I wanted to be the teacher that my teachers had been for me. I wanted to be the safe person that a child could trust, while instilling my love of learning. I wanted to give back.

By the time I reached my education degree, it really was about all those things, and something so much more fundamental. Teaching was my passion. It was where I came alive. Despite missing out on so much of my childhood, I was able to live it vicariously through my students while promoting education, safety, respect, and life skills. Teaching wasn't exactly a choice, it was more like my calling. I didn't choose it, it chose me.

Teaching is not as easy business. It's hard, stressful, little pay, and it can burn you out like you wouldn't believe. There were times where I questioned should I continue teaching, especially when jobs were scarce. But at the same time, it is so rewarding. I love seeing my students every day, seeing their smiles, seeing their "A-Ha" moments when they discover something new, and learning along with them.

See while I teach them, they also teach me. They teach me to grow in patience, kindness, and love. They teach me to look at the world through the eyes of the child and see the good. They help me to be a better person. They make me want to be a better person.

Student Led Conferences

So tonight was the first half of parent teacher interviews, or student-led conferences as we call them now. I wouldn’t say that I get nervous from them, but I do enjoy when they are over. You never know how people will react, good or bad. I remember years ago, a student got an awesome mark, and the mother started bawling (seriously).

So overall, great night. I had 13 parents come and all showed up. I am a person who does try to emphasize the positive with students, but at the same time, I always need to make suggestions. It is part of my job, after all.

I am always so drained afterwards. My feet are sore and my mind is exhausted. I don’t want to do anything with any real meaning. It starts again tomorrow, but only until 1, and then we’re allowed to leave. To have a Friday afternoon off….yes!!!! It’s a big treat. And again, I’m not planning anything with meaning. I will nothing if that’s what I want!

One more day…got to keep reminding myself that. The kids are hyper as can be and my energy is dwindling. Today was a crazy day. The school had the bake sale, and so the kids were going crazy for that. I ended up giving them a class to buy their treats and to eat them. Then we ended up making skeletons as their French teacher didn’t show (some office thing), which I had been planning to do with them anyhow. I was surprised how hard the cutting was for some of them. I work with kids that haven’t always had the most opportunities we shall say, and some of them had a tough time with it. But they were excited about them. I’ll post a picture later to show you. If you’re interested in making one yourself, check out: http://crafts.kaboose.com/paper-skeleton.html. I love this site!

For science, we are continuing gravity. I had them watch Bill Nye and then today, we tackled the balancing birdie (after a good talk about gravity). I had them all standing up and yelling gravity. They loved it. So the balancing birdie went over big time. I was shocked by how crazy it was for them. They couldn’t believe that this birdie balances on your finger only by its beak. It was cool. The link for that too is: http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/balancing-bird/.

I wanted to post a couple of other pictures to of the work we’ve done. We did mandalas where I had the students focusing on peace within them. The kids had a blast making them and I think they turned out fabulous! There is also a bulletin board done on sun safety that turned out pretty cool.