For the Love of Learning
Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, "I am running away." "If you run away, " said his mother, "I will run after you. For you are my little bunny." The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
Over the course of my life I have worked in several different fields - I've worked in real estate, metal building sales, a mental health hospital, in two different churches (one as the children's pastor and one in the accounting office), an accounting firm and now I am a teacher. The year my son was born (2014) I was completing my counseling internship and in my third year of graduate school. For many years I wanted to become a therapist but during that year my focus started to shift. To be very honest I had first hand experience in the counseling room and realized how draining this profession is. I still love therapy and all things psychology, but as a new mom my focus began to shift. Shortly after finishing school, we moved to a new state and God began aligning my career path.
Now, I am usually game for anything but when it became clear to me that teaching was the direction God was moving me in I was convinced that He was making a mistake. I did not think that I could be a good teacher.... or even an average teacher. And my thinking stemmed from my absolute hatred of school from sixth grade until high school graduation. In sixth grade I had a teacher that I did not like very much and I don't believe she cared for me either. Up until this point I was a great student. I actually do not think that I had ever been in trouble at school for my behavior or academics prior to my sixth grade year. This is the year that I transitioned to a new school. It was hard. Change was hard for me to process. The only time I had ever transitioned to a new school was in the middle of my first grade year when my parents divorced. So I struggled through my sixth grade year and continued to struggle throughout junior high and high school. I wish that I could say that I remember a really great teacher during that time, but I honestly do not. By the time I got to high school most of the teachers knew the kind of student that I was and never really pushed me to be or do more. I was always the student who was "not working to her full potential". Hearing those words over and over was exhausting. I eventually ignored them. Later in life I came to realize that I am a solution-oriented person so continually reminding me of the problem without the solution did not help me.
Both of my parents are retired teachers and it seemed to me that my teachers just expected me to excel and when I did not they really didn't seem to know what to do with me. Generally the words I heard were, "you know better". When I was getting my M.A. in Counseling I took a class on child and adolescent therapy and in one of the books the author made the statement that changed my entire perspective and it is something that I continually try to implement in my classroom. The author said that in order to be a good therapist or teacher we should not expect for a child to come up to our level, but we should but willing to get down on their level. This helps me so much in the classroom because it seems like most children and adolescents just want to be understood. They want to be recognized for who they are. I longed for that one teacher to recognize that I was not a bad student. But I was a student who needed direction.
I honestly believe that each student has a desire to learn new things, try new things and achieve success. But I also believe that not all of them are confident enough to admit it. Some of them have never been told that they can. Some of them are working 30-40 hours a week and going to school. Some of them are helping raise their younger siblings. Some of them have scars from the past that have not been healed. But all students have the opportunity and capability to learn and I aspire to be the teacher that not only sees the potential in these students that are struggling, but points them in a direction that will help them reach their potential. I am pretty sure that I have always loved learning (I'm working on my second master's degree now), I just didn't have a clear direction of the path my life was supposed to take. And even though the road to get to teaching has not been a straight path, I am sure that everything I have encountered, endured and persevered through has prepared me for this time in my life.
Over the course of my life I have worked in several different fields - I've worked in real estate, metal building sales, a mental health hospital, in two different churches (one as the children's pastor and one in the accounting office), an accounting firm and now I am a teacher. The year my son was born (2014) I was completing my counseling internship and in my third year of graduate school. For many years I wanted to become a therapist but during that year my focus started to shift. To be very honest I had first hand experience in the counseling room and realized how draining this profession is. I still love therapy and all things psychology, but as a new mom my focus began to shift. Shortly after finishing school, we moved to a new state and God began aligning my career path.
Now, I am usually game for anything but when it became clear to me that teaching was the direction God was moving me in I was convinced that He was making a mistake. I did not think that I could be a good teacher.... or even an average teacher. And my thinking stemmed from my absolute hatred of school from sixth grade until high school graduation. In sixth grade I had a teacher that I did not like very much and I don't believe she cared for me either. Up until this point I was a great student. I actually do not think that I had ever been in trouble at school for my behavior or academics prior to my sixth grade year. This is the year that I transitioned to a new school. It was hard. Change was hard for me to process. The only time I had ever transitioned to a new school was in the middle of my first grade year when my parents divorced. So I struggled through my sixth grade year and continued to struggle throughout junior high and high school. I wish that I could say that I remember a really great teacher during that time, but I honestly do not. By the time I got to high school most of the teachers knew the kind of student that I was and never really pushed me to be or do more. I was always the student who was "not working to her full potential". Hearing those words over and over was exhausting. I eventually ignored them. Later in life I came to realize that I am a solution-oriented person so continually reminding me of the problem without the solution did not help me.
Both of my parents are retired teachers and it seemed to me that my teachers just expected me to excel and when I did not they really didn't seem to know what to do with me. Generally the words I heard were, "you know better". When I was getting my M.A. in Counseling I took a class on child and adolescent therapy and in one of the books the author made the statement that changed my entire perspective and it is something that I continually try to implement in my classroom. The author said that in order to be a good therapist or teacher we should not expect for a child to come up to our level, but we should but willing to get down on their level. This helps me so much in the classroom because it seems like most children and adolescents just want to be understood. They want to be recognized for who they are. I longed for that one teacher to recognize that I was not a bad student. But I was a student who needed direction.
I honestly believe that each student has a desire to learn new things, try new things and achieve success. But I also believe that not all of them are confident enough to admit it. Some of them have never been told that they can. Some of them are working 30-40 hours a week and going to school. Some of them are helping raise their younger siblings. Some of them have scars from the past that have not been healed. But all students have the opportunity and capability to learn and I aspire to be the teacher that not only sees the potential in these students that are struggling, but points them in a direction that will help them reach their potential. I am pretty sure that I have always loved learning (I'm working on my second master's degree now), I just didn't have a clear direction of the path my life was supposed to take. And even though the road to get to teaching has not been a straight path, I am sure that everything I have encountered, endured and persevered through has prepared me for this time in my life.
Loved your thoughts about teaching and learning.
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