Why did I become a teacher?
It’s quite a simple answer really: my third grade teacher, Mrs. Oram , my 5th grade teacher Madame Beaupre, my 9th grade Math teacher Mr. Bauer and my 11th Grade teacher Mrs. Leventhal. These teachers believed in me, a quiet, nervous, young girl who had yet to believe in herself. They motivated and inspired me to love learning and want to teach others.
There are some days I come home and wonder why on earth I ever decided to enter this profession? And then there are the days when you see a glimmer of growth in a few students that you had just begun to give up on and it provides fuel for you to keep going. Today I had one of those days and it reminded me why I teach.
Kinetic and Potential Energy Science Lesson: Bowling! Strike!
Holding a Falcon at the Heritage village at our School.
Canada Pavilion
Our Principal's monkey
Digging in at the Jordanian pavilion! This is how we eat at school.
I had been struggling with two particular students over the past 4 months and not seen significant growth in either of their academic abilities. I was constantly struggling with their behavior on a daily basis and was sending home notes to the parents regarding the constant disruptions and fights they were causing in the classroom. Gradually, things began to change when I started to focus on their positive behavior, and praise them every single time they did something good (even something simple as raising their hand to answer a question) I made time to work one-to-one with them and saw something that I never had seen before: They wanted to learn to read but were embarrassed about making mistakes. I decided to try ‘popcorn reading’ with them and discovered how much they enjoyed it because it meant we were reading together in a less intimidating way. I saw a shy smile on both their faces and saw the pride that they had in themselves when they realized they were actually reading. At the last parent teacher conference, I had to stand my ground with their parents, defending their poor grades in a country where straight A’s are normally issued to satisfy the parents whether their child has earned them or not. The same parents appeared during teaching hours on multiple occasions trying to debate the grades of their children. I refused to budge. Today and yesterday I had a visit from these same parents and was nervous to find out what I was in store for. I was pleasantly surprised to hear “My son is happy. He likes your class and English. His comes home every day and can tell the time.” I broke out into a huge smile and nearly fainted. Literally. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it was truly music to my ears! It was a moment I just wanted to freeze and hold onto forever. It is moments like these that remind me why I teach. In a profession that is constantly changing, undervalued, competitive, exhausting, full of political B.S., and cattiness, sometimes it is best to focus on the students, forget the rest and then real teaching begins to take place and learning occurs. This is one of the many reasons I teach.
