Helping teachers has always been something I enjoy. Helping new teachers as they start their career is even more exciting! New teachers come into the field excited and ready to take on the world! It is a great time in your career to start your journey right! Through this blog series, my dear friend Beth Frueh from Adventures of a Schoolmarm and I will take you through all the many fun aspects of teaching and give you tips and suggestions to support you in your new adventures as a teacher. For each topic discussed Beth and I will take a different stance or explore a different aspect of the topic. Please make sure to click through to both blogs to get the maximum information…and of course all the freebies along the way!
As the adventure begins, I want to give you some background on myself so you know where I am coming from in all of this. Here are some of the highlights…
- I have 13 years of experience in the classroom.
- Grades taught include: Kinder (3 years), First (3 years), Second (3 years), Third (3 years), Fourth (1 year), Fifth in summer school. I like to move around and experience the different grade levels. It really helps a teacher to understand where the kids need to go or where they have been.
- I have taught all subjects.
- I hold a Ph.D. in Curriculum, a Masters in Educational Administration and a Bachelors in Elementary Ed.
- I am still in the classroom at this time, but hope to advance in the near future.
- I am married to the love of my life, we have 3 dogs and 2 cats and hope to have children one day.
- I LOVE creating curriculum and clip art and I spend a lot of my time with my family, friends and at church helping out.
Anything else, just ask! I love talking to people!
So let’s talk teaching! Today as we introduce our series, I am going to give you my top three reasons I love what I do!
1. I Get to Be Creative.
Admittedly, it is hard for me to narrow down the reasons I teach…I feel it is a calling and I’ve known since I was a little girl that this is what I was meant to do with my life. However, one of the things I love about it is that it is a place where I get to create and be innovative. Yes, with teaching there are parameters, and it is important to follow district and state standards. All that has to be done gets done, but I am blessed that I get to have a say in HOW I get it done.
Finding new and creative ways to introduce the curriculum and finding hands-on ways to implement the strategies and concepts I teach is something I love that we get to do. On top of that, we live in an age of one of the best things to happen to teachers in a long time…Teachers Pay Teachers and Pinterest! Through these sites we get to see into each others’ classrooms and we get to push each other into new heights of achievement for our students. We aren’t controlled by textbook companies and publishers who have never stepped foot in a classroom…we have a voice, how awesome is that?! When I’m feeling drained, I search my Pinterest boards to find new life to breathe into my lessons…it is a great feeling!
2. There is Never a Dull Moment.
This is the understatement of the year! Oh boy, classrooms always have action happening and you get to be the ring leader in it! Most days in my room are full of routines and procedures. After a few years of teaching you get your routines down and you learn how to train you little darlings. The become efficient in expectations and for the most part, they will do what they are asked to do….there is always that one of course that needs the extra guidance! lol. Then there are the other days…the days when you have class picture, full moon, a party in the afternoon and a monsoon headed towards your building. Those days feel like you are herding cats on Red Bull.
My favorite story in all my years of teaching is one from my second year…that year I had a student in my class name Christmas. She was a sweet, precious child born in February (never did figure out how she got her name). Classroom procedures dictated that we have one student in the restroom at a time. The bathroom was down the hall from our second grade classroom. Well, Christmas was in the restroom when another child came and asked me if she could go use the facilities.
Without thinking much about it, I told her, “Honey, you need to wait and go after Christmas.” The child looked at me mortified and said, “But I can’t wait that long.” (It was October.) I looked at her confused and trying to figure out if it was an emergency, when within a second of her response Christmas came bee-bopping in the door and the child and I both had an “ah-ha” moment and understood what the other had meant. I told the child she could now go to the bathroom, much to her relief that I wasn’t making her wait two months to go to the bathroom. I still chuckle to myself every time I reminisce on this…I have hundreds more, just as great. Teaching children brings a spice to life and keeps every day new.
3. I Change Lives…For the Better!
This is the main reason I teach. There is nothing more satisfying in teaching for me than the expression on a child’s face when they finally understand something or the confidence I help them to build in themselves by the time they reach the end of the year. Teachers mold the future! The investments made by teachers help to shape our future generations.
The moment a child comes to you and says that they didn’t give up because of you, or their parent comes to you and says, “because of you my child was successful” are moments unlike any other. Those moments are the ones I hold on to on the hard days…and there are hard days. The good days outweigh the bad ten times over.
Every year as I teach I sit and count up how many children I have taught based on the amount of years I’ve been in the classroom, try it after a few years. When you stop to think of how many lives it is over a teachers career it is amazing. I get to make a difference every day, how cool is that?!
I hope you have enjoyed this post! Please go and meet Beth! You can see her post on today’s topic by clicking her image below.
Also, stay tuned for next week’s post as we begin diving into the heart of this series. Next week we will talk about…
