Don't Forget Where You Came From!

I refused to be part  Teacher Group”

  

I admit it.  I come from huge family of teachers…  my mom, three out of my four sisters (odd girl out went into social work…close enough) and now me.  Most people raised by teachers credit their family with their desire to enter the field of education.  It had the opposite effect on me.  Growing up my sisters played school and talked about becoming teachers and seemed quite content to continue on in the family tradition.  I could never understand why they wanted a career doing something that made so many kids miserable.  I hated the idea of accepting the proverbial baton and contributing to the next generation’s academic misery.  I wanted to do something different, better, anything other than what “the five girls” (no one could quite keep all of us freckle faced kids straight) were doing.  Anything to be different and find a career where people were happy!

I was in the “I Stink at Math Group” and became part of the “I Love Math Group”

Hello, Accounting Career!

I tried different majors, eventually realizing that I wasn’t horrible at math, my teachers had just done a horrible job explaining it to me in a way that I could understand.  I, the worst student in my family of teachers, managed an A in Calculus 1, 2 and Statistics on my way to earning a degree in Business Administration to become an Accountant. 

I became part of the ”I Hate My Job Group”

It wasn’t nearly as glamorous or fulfilling as advertised.  I went to work each day with a sense that I was wasting my life balancing someone else’s checkbook.

These People and their teachers….

…made me realize the potential and beauty of teaching.

All these years later my children and a different group of teachers made me realize that teaching was my ambition.  Teaching, when it is done right, is amazing.  When the teacher conducts and the students respond by participating in the learning process in complete harmony, it is like watching the Symphony. 

I became part of the “Teacher in Training Group”

 

If I combined my experience as part of the “I Stink at Math Group” with my personal experience of growing into the “I Love Math Group” and became a teacher I could be a teacher who made a difference.  I know what it feels like to be miserably inadequate at math and what I need to do to help students succeed and learn to love math.  All of my experiences in these different groups led me to my true calling!

I am going to be part of the “I am a Teacher Group”

   

Teachers can make a difference.  As a member of the group of teachers in America I have an opportunity that teachers in Finland don’t…I can be an agent of change to help students in America close the learning gap.  I can work with teachers and administrators to research better ways of teaching that yield better results.  I can work with my colleagues to implement those changes and adjust them to maximize student success.  Teachers in Finland are already there, they have to maintain their course and adjust their sails, but the course has already been set.  What an amazing opportunity we have as teachers in this country to contribute to the success of our students in such an enormous way. 

I will put this on my desk when I finally become part of the “I Have My Own Classroom Group” to remind me where I came from and the power I have to create or destroy a confidence and a child's love for learning.