I teach...
- because I was blessed and spoiled as a child and realize that other children deserve the same opportunities I had.
- to share my LOVE for learning.
- to satisfy my desire for doing something intrinsically valuable with my life for humanity.
- because I want to enrich the lives of others.
- to hide how truly crazy I am.
- to get my blood pumping and my hair standing on end.
- because I understand the teaching and learning process, from a child's perspective.
- to watch the invisible light bulbs flicker on and off in my classroom.
- because I think wrinkles and crow's feet are sexy and I will soon have enough to share.
- so that I have good Karma.
- to insure that children feel loved and appreciated.
- because at least once at day (usually much, much more than that) my students make me laugh and smile.
- because I loved being a student. I wish I were still in school honestly. I want my next degree so bad it keeps me up at night.
- because every single child is worth it all. The headaches, the tears, the frustrations, the panic attacks, the skipped meals, the paperwork, the research, the late night blog rants.
- because I am different.
- because I absolutely love reading aloud and having an audience.
- because I love the way my students idolize me.
- because I am terrified of having my own children. Not physically, but emotionally.
- because I wanted to be a thespian and children are the only ones who want to watch my show.
- because I had very, very good teachers and also very, very terrible ones.
- because I was taught.
- to satisfy my creativity and drive.
- because I want people to attend my funeral when I die.
- so that children do not make the same mistakes I made.
- because I remember what it feels like to be lost and confused.
And at the end of the day, you are one of a handful of people that these kids will remember 10, 20, 30, etc years down the line.
ReplyDeleteThe experiences you impart will stay with these children for life.
I have trouble remembering people I graduated with, but I remember almost every teacher I've had. Especially the early ones. (It starts getting hazier the more teachers I had in a given year)
I'm sure they will never forget TRYING to "Teach Me How to Dougie" or "jerk" on the playground. They may also remember our midday swing dance parties or the way I butcher Spanish as I read to them aloud.
ReplyDeleteBut these things don't make school systems happy. They aren't assessed on their ability to dance and appreciate other cultures.
However, these life lessons are nonetheless valuable to me and my students. I do the best I can to incorporate movement activities into the actual content I am supposed to be teaching. But I am not seeing the fruits of that labor on the standardized assessments yet. The truly sad part is that my students KNOW the content, they just can't regurgitate it on the tests they way they are expect to.