Lauren
Being that every job I’ve ever had has been working with children, of course I love them.
I think to be a really effective teacher it has to go far beyond that however. Everyone has heard all the rhetoric about how children are our future and inherit the Earth etc. I know some of this can become borderline cheesy but most of it holds true.
While sitting in a conference hall recently doing teacher training for my TX teaching certificate, I found it surreal that all 299 people sitting around me were writing down notes that read, “be respectful”, “be on time”, and “learn the children’s names”.
Were they kidding? This is what it takes to be a teacher? In my own time (about a decade) I figured that out. However one day in training they did mention favorite teachers. I thought back to my dreaded school career and four came to mind, what did they have about them that made them grand?
I come from a highly emotional family (on my dad’s side). Everything (I do mean everything) makes my dad, sister and I tear up! Proud, happy, sad, funny moments, you get the idea. That’s what I love so much about teaching. A shared laugh, a goal reached, a mountain climbed. Teaching truly is about the emotional awards.
My love for the arts was nourished from many different people in my life from when I was just a tot. However some teachers destroyed parts of the things I loved little by little. That is one of the reasons why I became a teacher. I truly love to pass on my love for the arts onto others. I have been told that I am sincerely gifted at that. I know I am blessed to have found my place.
For those other 299 people in the room training with me, I would love to ask: Is this your calling and how will you become grand?
For being a teacher to a group of young minds truly is a privilege. This is an honor to be taken on as a responsibility to nurture their growth and life path.
