Growing up in a family with five children, my parents always encouraged my artistic talents throughout my childhood and into high school. I began college as a design major. I enjoyed creating art and completing challenging design projects. At the end of my sophomore year, I was required to declare a minor within the design major. Honestly, I just couldn’t see myself being fulfilled in any of the minor fields. Designing art for a company or a client was not the future I wanted, so I took a leave of absence from college for a semester.
While soul-searching, I worked several jobs. At the time, my older sister, Anne, was a junior in college in elementary education, and was the swim team coach at the YMCA. I became her assistant coach. This was a defining moment in my life. From the time Anne was a little girl, she knew she was going to be a teacher. In fact, for many years, I was her student, as we played school for hours in our basement. Whilst coaching, I enjoyed the interaction with all of the kids (aged 6-17), and realized that if I majored in a child-related field, I would have a positive impact on the lives of children. Anne encouraged me to return to college as an education major. I became head coach for the remainder of my college years. Once I began course work, practicums and student teaching, I knew that I had made the correct decision. Now, I would have a positive and important impact on the future of humanity. This is why I changed my major and became an educator.
I have spent 28 years teaching in various classrooms in four different states. I have had a myriad of different experiences in the field of education; science specialist (grades 1-5), half-day kindergarten teacher, full day kindergarten teacher, second grade teacher, third grade teacher, art specialist, and first grade teacher. Each one has been unique, challenging and fulfilling. I began my career as a kindergarten teacher and fell in love with early childhood education! The fast pace and daily challenge of meeting each child’s needs, while using my creative strengths was a perfect balance. After three years of teaching, I began contemplating a Master’s Degree Program. I was excited to have the opportunity to be an art specialist because I thought I might pursue a Master’s in Art Education. However, I was teaching 860 students (K-5) in a 6-day rotation schedule, and I missed having the time to develop a real relationship with my students. I also missed observing the individual academic growth in my students. I wanted to get to know each student, create relationships with each of them, their families and ultimately guide their parents in the education of their child. Being an elementary teacher was the ideal platform for me to accomplish this goal, thus, I completed my Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction. I spent nine years as a ‘stay at home mom’. After returning as a full-time classroom teacher 16 years ago, I found my true passion, teaching first graders. I have spent every day doing exactly what I was destined to do in my lifetime.
When I returned to college after my leave of absence, I had two phenomenal professors. I was very fortunate to be assigned to their Early Childhood Education Block. This included 12 credit hours of classes and a Junior Practicum. For my Junior Practicum, I was assigned to teach first and second grade students on a team, with two teachers, in an urban magnet school. It was an exceptional placement: multicultural students, learning centers, creative lessons, and innovative teachers with a love of teaching and learning.
During my senior year, these same professors were my supervisors for my student teaching placements. They ensured that I had two completely different placements. My first eight-week student teaching assignment was in a rural setting teaching in a full day kindergarten. My second assignment was teaching on a fourth and fifth grade team in a suburban setting.
My professors taught me research based developmentally appropriate practices for early childhood education. They stressed creativity, hands-on learning and play as the means of teaching young children. We were not permitted to use a worksheet in any lesson, unless we could justify its necessity. Their knowledge of best practices for teaching young children was broad and I continue to incorporate many of these practices in my first-grade classroom today.
Looking back on this time in my life, I know in my heart that this entire scenario was exactly how things were meant to be for me.
I have loved being a teacher every day for the past 28 years. Of course, every day has not been “sunshine and roses”, but I have never questioned my decision to be an educator. There is not another career path that I could have chosen that would have been more fulfilling, enjoyable, or more suitable for me. Ten years ago, when our daughter was entering college as an Elementary Education/Special Education major, I had many colleagues ask me why I would encourage her to pursue this profession. At the time, I remembered feeling completely shocked, and I felt sad for those who questioned me. I also considered myself so very fortunate that I had chosen the correct path for my life. I would strongly suggest that if someone does not have a passion for teaching, does not feel like they are making a difference every day in the life of their students, or does not truly love educating children, it might be best to make a change. Finding one’s passion in life often takes time and discernment.
When you teach children, every single day is a new, unique, and magical adventure. Every single day is a challenge. Every single day is fulfilling. Every single day in my classroom has been a gift, and it has been exactly where I was destined to be. I have never thought about leaving education. I know that education is the most important profession in our world. Teaching first grade is rewarding, extraordinary and fun. I am honored and privileged to be an educator.
One day I hope experienced educators would be respected as valued consultants to share our wisdom and create appropriate educational standards for all of our students at each grade level. All experienced educators know that many standards are not developmentally appropriate for our students. Those of us on the front line live this on a daily basis. For example, why are we teaching nouns in first, second, third, fourth and fifth grades? Sixth grade teachers have informed me that many of their students still cannot identify a noun in a sentence. I was an excellent reader and loved English class in elementary school, but didn’t truly understand grammatical concepts until I was in middle school. Other incredibly important skills/lessons in early childhood education, are short-changed with little time to teach them because we are having to teach a plethora of insignificant and inappropriate lessons that don’t belong within a kindergarten or first-grade curriculum. Many of these common core standards will never be appropriate for early childhood learners.
One day I hope creativity, thinking outside the box, collaboration among students and other higher-level thinking activities would be integrated into all areas of our curriculum. Our educational system places too much emphasis on inflated student grades, on standardized test results and on memorizing facts. One day, perhaps education will focus on educating the whole child.
One day I hope there would be equity between school districts. School districts remain racially and economically segregated. The gap between rich and poor students continues to widen. One day I hope there would be equal resources amongst all schools and all students.