Week 3: Teaching as a Career and Happy Moments

Last week was wonderful because it really made me think about why I was going into teaching. We had to write a letter to ourselves in 5 years as a reminder of why we decided to be teachers. I ended up needing to think about these reason the next day at work when the 1st grade students were acting a little bonkers! Here is my letter:

Dear Danielle,
You may or may not have forgotten why you wanted to be a teacher. It can be an easy thing to loose track of sometimes. Always remember that it is about the kids, not about you. It's about doing whatever it takes to help them learn and to soar. This can be tough for some of them, so remember to always allow them time to just play and be kids. The work to overcome their personal obstacles cannot be completed by you - the most you can do is to be a guide and inspire them to do their best. The best moments in a classroom are the ones where you can see each child physically change when they "get it" - all those "ah-ha" moments. I know there are days when you feel like giving up... DON'T! Remember these things about why you wanted to teach in the first place. They will help you through the tough times.

After doing writing this letter and thinking about all the good there is in teaching, I was a little put off by the Bilkin article. The way the article was written seemed to cast teaching in such a negative light! I could not believe that many teachers didn’t consider teaching to be a career! As I was reading this article, one of my friends called me, she is also a teacher, and I couldn’t help but rant about how appalling it was that teaching is not considered a career. I do agree that it is DIFFERENT than typical careers, say, in the business world, but that does not mean teaching is not a career! To me, a career is a job, occupation, profession (whatever you want to call it) that a person puts all their effort into and is something they have chosen to do. No, there may not be specific opportunities for advancement, but that is not the reason most people go into teaching. From my experience, teachers want to be there; they want to put 110% effort into helping children learn; they want to devote more than 40 hours each week to making sure everything goes as planned (for the most part); they don’t care about getting paid less than people in traditional careers. Teachers are a special breed of people.

Switching gears completely – I really like the Ayers chapter! I really liked the section about how labeling children as having a learning disability only focuses on what they can’t do, as opposed to what they can do. The way he made this point was humorous and illustrated very well how true this idea is. Schools should be focusing on ways to help children learn things they are “deficient” in by using skills they are good at. If a student is not good at reading or writing but seems to be an imaginative artist, maybe read a story out loud and have the child illustrate it as you go to help them better understand what is happening in the story. For the same student, a teacher could have them draw pictures about what happens in a story then go back and write the sentences that go along with the pictures. There are multitudes of ways to use children’s strengths to help them in the areas that need some work.

Another point Ayers makes that I connect to is that, “When teachers value their children’s opinions and experiences, children begin to think more openly” (42). I actually say this happen in my class today. We started a new reading curriculum called Junior Great Books. Today we read a story and had the students illustrate certain sections using their own interpretations about how the characters were feeling at that moment. After each piece, students were called on to share their work. They were hesitant at first and the usual outgoing students volunteered to share. The teacher praised each student’s efforts and pointed out the fantastic ways in which each interpretation was different. After the next section, EVERYONE raised their hands to share! The quiet, timid students that we usually don’t hear from very often were up on their feet explaining, in loud voices, how they interpreted the story. Not only did more students want to share, but the visual interpretations of the story became more and more creative as we went through the lesson. It was absolutely fantastic! By simply showing that everyone’s opinions are valid and different in good ways more students were willing (and excited) to share their opinions with the rest of the class. This in the type of classroom I will strive for every day!